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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIC 



GROWING 
TOWARD GOD 

By GERARD B. F. HALLOCK, D.D. 

Author of ''Journeying in the Land Where Jesus 
Livedy^* "God's Whispered Secrets,'^ ''Upward 
Steps,'' "Beauty in God's Wordy' etc. 



Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch 
At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb ; 

Keep clean, bear fruit, earn life, and watch 
Till the white-winged reaper come. 

— Henry Vaughan 



AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 

150 Nassau Street 



Boston 



New York 



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Chicago 



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UBBARVAfOONORESS 

IWo OoBlw Rewrtved 
SEP 7 1904 
y^ i^oDyrlrht Ermv 

CLA!» <2^XXo. No. 

' COPY B 

imnii ■ 



Copyright, 1904 
By American Tract Society 



o 



CONTENTS, 





Preface 

Introduction by Eev. Dr. Theo- 


3 




dore L. Cuyler 


5 


I. 


Growing Toward God . 




7 


II. 


Turning Aside to See 




13 


III. 


The Comfort of Prayer . 




19 


IV. 


The Comfort of the Church 




24 


V. 


Take Time to be Holy . 




32 


VI. 


Faith and Joy .... 




39 


yiL 


Eeligion's Pleasant Ways 




44 


VIII. 


Celestial Investments 




49 


IX. 


Christ Dwelling Within . , 




56 


X. 


Abiding Work 




61 


XT. 


Celestial Citizenship . 




68 


XII. 


Eeverses and Prosperity 




75 


xm. 


Our Temptations and their ( 


)on- 






quest 




87 


XIV. 


Little Sins 




92 


XV. 


Spiritual Lonesomeness . 




99 


XVI. 


The Grace of being Tender- 






hearted 

I 


• 


105 



XVII. 
XVIII. 

XIX. 



XXI. 

XXII. 
XXIII. 
XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 



XXXI. 
XXXII. 



CONTENTS 

The Marks of the Lord Jesus . 110 
The Responsibility of Leader- 
ship 116 

Sin a Self Injury . . . . .122 
Eating Honey by the Way . . 129 
Spiritual Fragrance .... 135 
The Sympathy of Christ . . . 141 

Our Eich Helper 149 

The Love of the Holy Spirit . . 155 
Living in Right Relations to- 
ward the Holy Spirit . . . 168 
The Fancies of Life .... 175 
Safeguards against Sin . . . 184 

Self-Discovery 189 

Enthusiasm as an Attainment . 194 

My Neighbor 199 

Life and Things 208 

Life Marred and Made over . . 213 



PREFACE. 

God is the Sun of our souls. As vegetable 
growth is toward the sun so true Christian 
growth is toward God. Bring that sickly plant 
from the cellar up into the light and how soon 
it begins to freshen up and grow and take on 
rich colors. The reason there are puny Chris- 
tians is because they live too much away from 
God. '' The Lord God is a sun." '' God is 
light." Light vivifies. Light purifies. Light 
gives power. All sources of power are directly 
from the sun, coming in rays of light. Light is 
comforting. A dark day is a gloomy day, but a 
burst of sunshine gives cheer. Light is beauti- 
fying. A garden or a bird of glorious plumage 
is not beautiful in the dark; but in the light of 
the sun how exquisite they are ! 

No wonder Christians are exhorted to * * walk 
in the light. ' ' We should all get as much as we 
may out under the clear shioing of the glorious 
^^ Sun of Eighteousness. " Spiritual health 

3 



4 PEEFACE 

and beauty and happiness and serviceableness 
are the sure results. 

This little book has but one aim. It has been 
written with the hope and prayer that it may 
be providentially used as a beckoning hand to 
call its readers to a life lived more largely out 
in the sunshine of God's love. 

G. B. F. H. 



GROWING TOWARD GOD 



GROWING TOWAED GOD. 

** Grow tall— tall enough to look over Mount 
Difficulty into Hope City. 

Grow broad— broad enough to bear with 
people whom God has made different from you. 

Grow deep, sending your roots down into 
perpetual springs. Come to know God. 

Grow straight, measuring right up to the line 
of duty. 

Grow stout— ready for burdens, and ready 
for fruit." 

Plants and vegetation and trees grow toward 
the sun. Even the heart of a tree trunk is not 
at the centre, as many suppose, but the main 
body of every tree has an elliptical bulge 
toward the sun-prevailing side. In garden or 
grove or thicket, if any plants or trees or 
shrubs are in the shade, they struggle toward 
the sun, the source of their light and life and 

7 



8 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

well being. It is in the same way that Chris- 
tians ought to grow,— toward God, the source 
of their life and light and blessedness. ^' The 
Lord God is a sun." It is our privilege and 
should be our delight to grow toward him. 

Not a few Christians are dissatisfied with 
themselves and their attainments. They feel 
that they are living on the surface of the Chris- 
tian life and that there are depths of riches 
belonging to it into which they have not come, 
because they do not know the way. They want 
to grow toward God, and in likeness to God, 
but they say they know not how to make such 
attainment. 

The fact is that the whole matter has been 
treated too much as a mystery. The darkness 
and uncertainty which trouble Christians 
would disappear, if the plain teachings and 
counsels of the Bible were carefully regarded. 
The directions for living the spiritual life are 
all given so definitely and plainly in God's 
Word that no one need make a mistake. 

One essential qualification for the deepening 
and enriching of the spiritual life is knowledge. 
It is important, if we would grow toward God, 



GEOWING TOWARD GOD 9 

that we should have a clear and definite under- 
standing of spiritual things. There can be 
almost no growth in grace without growth in 
knowledge first. But there is nothing in the 
least difficult or mysterious about the way to 
get this knowledge. It is simply by a constant 
and faithful study of the Bible. Bible-fed 
Christians are strong Christians, vigorous, 
active, growing. Those who neglect the Bible 
are weak and sickly, discontented and ineffi- 
cient. We are simply to *^ desire the sincere 
milk of the Word, that we may grow thereby." 
There is no mystery about that, nor anything 
out of the reach of any of us. 

Not less important and necessary is prayer. 
Prayer is indeed a method of knowledge. It 
brings acquaintance with God, knowledge of 
God and growth toward God. The absence of 
prayer is the sure sign of retrogression and in- 
difference. Prayerfulness is an essential char- 
acteristic of any deep or successful Christian 
living. There is no mystery about prayer. It 
is a very simple thing, but a very essential 
thing, if we would grow as Christians. 

Near akin to this is meditation. To meditate 



10 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

is to dwell upon anything in thought, to study 
upon it deliberately and continuously, to muse, 
to reflect, to think. It really means to get into 
the middle of a thing. It means to study 
deeply. The great men of science have been 
men of meditation. The greatest philosophers 
arrived at their deep thoughts by reflection. 
The great men of God, too, have been men of 
meditation. Eobert Hall and Eichard Baxter 
and John Bunyan and others, who have had a 
deep understanding of or rich experiences in 
the Christian life, were all men of much spirit- 
ual meditation. Too many of us fail to make 
the truth we hear our own. We fail to make it 
undergo the mental process of digestion, by 
which alone it can become our own — a part of 
us. Would you grow toward God, then follow 
Paul's advice to Timothy: ^' Meditate on 
these things ; give thyself wholly to them. ' ' 

One other essential is obedience. So far as 
we know we are to do. As some one has said : 
if There are attainments in the spiritual life 
which can be reached in no other way, save 
through a faithful and loving doing of the will 
of Christ. The exercises of faith and prayer 



GEOWING TOWAED GOD 11 

will not bring them. It is through service that 
life grows stronger, healthier and more vigor- 
ous. To do each day the ordinary duties of life 
as unto Christ, and with a desire to please him, 
will as truly bring us into larger and happier 
spiritual life as the exercises of the closet, of 
devotion, or waiting upon God in the ordi- 
nances of public worship. Prompt, loving and 
faithful obedience to known duty not only 
yields peace and joy, but it also opens the way 
to higher service. The failure to recognize this 
truth will account for the unrest and dissatis- 
faction and dwarfed lives of many professed 
Christians. Neither emotion, nor prayer, nor 
meditation on the Scriptures, can be substi- 
tuted for holy obedience." 

You wish to grow toward God. Then put 
away all thought that it is to be attained in 
some strange, mysterious way. Fall in with 
the oldest, simplest, best possible methods of 
knowledge, prayer, meditation and obedience. 
Verily, you shall have your reward. 

'* How does the soul grow? Not all in a 

minute. 
Now it may lose ground, and now it may win it ; 



12 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

Now it resolves, and again the will f aileth ; 
Now it rejoiceth, and now it bewaileth; 
Now hopes fructify, then they are blighted; 
Now it walks sunnily, now gropes benighted. 
Fed by discouragements, taught by disaster, 
So it goes forward, now slower, now faster, 
Till, all the pain past, and failure made whole, 
It is full-grown, and the Lord rules the soul." 



IL 

TUENING ASIDE TO SEE. 

That in these busy, hurrying times we need 
to be stirred afresh to the blessed exercise of 
fellowship with God, few Christians will deny. 
That fellowship with God is a blessed exercise 
all who know anything at all about Christian 
experience will agree. '^ It is good for me to 
draw near to God," is a common sentiment of 
Christians ; but the drawing near and the living 
near are not nearly so common as an attain- 
ment. The fact that we can draw near to God 
implies the fact also that it is possible to live 
at a distance from God, which too many among 
even professed Christians do. 

Moses at the '' mountain of God " was an 
instance of a man within reach of a great spir- 
itual opportunity. What he saw was a bush 
burning, but unconsumed. Moved by a spirit 
of reasonable inquisitiveness, he said, '^ I will 
now turn aside and see this great sight; why 

13 



14 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

the bush is not burnt. ' ' When he paused in his 
going, and bent his steps in the direction of the 
wonder, there came to him the blessing of a 
rich revelation. Indeed, he met Jehovah, who 
spoke to him, face to face. 

It was almost a similar experience the 
Apostle John had on Patmos. Being '^ in the 
Spirit on the Lord's day,'' he heard a voice 
behind him. It was a trumpet-like voice, pro- 
claiming: '* I am Alpha and Omega." John 
** turned to see " the voice that spake with 
him, and at once there followed a still ampler 
message and a richer blessing. 

What was true of Moses and what was true 
of John is true of men always,— they get vis- 
ions of God and the richest spiritual blessings 
only as they give themselves pause in the hurry 
of life, and ** turn aside to see." God inti- 
mates in some way that he would speak with us, 
and when he does, that moment is our moment 
of spiritual opportunity. It is our duty to turn 
aside to see. It is our duty to place ourselves 
in the full attitude of attention. Like Samuel 
upon hearing the voice, we should say at once, 
** Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." 



TUENING ASIDE TO SEE 15 

Turn aside to attend upon a spiritual mood 
or impulse. Moses did not thoughtlessly or 
indifferently hasten on, satisfied with the mere 
glimpse he got of the burning bush. Many get 
a glimpse of spiritual possibilities, fall into 
the mood of spiritual thoughtfulness ; but they 
deliberately shake it off, and say to the wooing 
Spirit of God, *^ Go thy way for this time; 
when I have a convenient season I will call for 
thee." That is doing despite unto the Spirit 
of grace. That is hurrying by the burning 
bush. That is failing to heed God's beckoning 
call. That tells the secret, too, why many 
brought up in our Christian homes and 
churches and communities are not Christians. 
This same lack of spiritual attentiveness is the 
reason also why many Christians are weak in 
faith, lukewarm in love, and powerless for serv- 
ice. God has many things to say to those who 
will come near enough to him to hear his voice 
or who will be still long enough to listen. 
' ' The secret of the Lord is with them that fear 
him." The term here rendered ** secret " is 
in the Hebrew tongue *' a whisper." When a 
humble and teachable soul is near to God he 



16 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

often tells it a secret. He whispers in the at- 
tentive Christian's ear some sweet word of 
promise or of love which no one else can hear, 
perhaps which no one else could understand. 
Turn aside to see. Pause long enough to find 
out the meaning of the intimation God has 
given. 

Turn aside to attend upon what God says to 
you in his Word. This is an age of secularity. 
The push of life leads along the well-beaten 
track of worldliness. It takes some grit for a 
busily engaged man to say to himself: '' I will 
now turn aside from the paths of greed and 
money-getting and secularity, and see some 
great thing in the spiritual realm." The Bible 
is a letter sent to him, but he does not open it, 
— or thus far has neglected it. He has been 
rushing along practically heedless of what God 
says. But this is a very narrow-minded and 
foolish way in which to live. It is a happy day 
for any man when he comes to a distinct de- 
cision to deflect from his accustomed way of 
worldliness and listen to the voice of God. It 
is important, too, for all Christians to remem- 
ber that time taken for the study of God's mes- 



TURNING ASIDE TO SEE 17 

sages is not time lost. No one is a loser by the 
time he spends with the Bible. In the largest 
sense " Godliness is profitable unto aU things.'' 
It pays to turn aside and see God, and to hear 
what he has to say to us in his blessed Book. 
Turn aside to hear and to meditate. 

Turn aside to see and learn the meaning of 
God's providential acts. At first the burning 
bush seemed only a mysterious but meaningless 
happening; but it was far from that. Moses 
turned aside to see and at once found that 
there was transcendent meaning in it, and a 
most important message for him. It was when 
God saw that he turned aside to see and hear, 
his attention arrested, that he spoke to him. 
^* Be still, and know that I am God." Do you 
get still enough before God to permit him to 
tell you the meaning of his providential deal- 
ings with you? There is much you might 
know which you do not, many mysteries that 
would be explained to you if only you would 
be still before God, would turn aside to see and 
to hear what he has to say to you through his 
providential dealings. 

God speaks to us when we are still. In the 



18 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

busy part of the day in London, so great is the 
rush along the Strand that the tolling of the 
great clock in St. PauPs Cathedral, as it strikes 
the hours, is not heard. People could hear it if 
they would stop and listen. Many of us live in 
such a rush and hurry that we do not hear God 
speak. Yet he would speak to us messages of 
the sweetest and most meaningful import if we 
would permit ourselves to pause in life and be 
in an attitude to heed what he says. 

Being with God shows. Men could tell that 
Moses had held fellowship with him. Being 
with God gives power. Moses went from the 
presence of God to work wonders in his name. 
Quiet listening to God is no hindrance to mak- 
ing active accomplishment in life. Being with 
God gives a sense of zest and security. To go 
conscious that God is with us gives mighty in- 
spiration to life. Moses had God consciously 
with him. No wonder he went so well on God's 
errands. 



III. 

THE COMFORT OF PRAYER. 

* ^ Prayer is the rope up in the belfry : we pull 
it, and it rings the bell up in heaven," so said 
Christmas Evans, the great Welsh preacher. 
To know that the bell rings, and to have its 
music flood our lives, this is indeed a great 
comfort to Christians. 

What a never-failing source of comfort 
prayer is! The history of each individual 
Christian and of the amount of comfort and 
blessedness he has received could be almost ac- 
curately recorded by a statement of his habits 
of prayer. Children in their disappointments 
and youths in making their choices, mothers in 
their careworn lives and fathers in their toil, 
statesmen in their heavy tasks and pastors with 
their perplexities, Christians of all ages and all 
classes and in every variety of circumstances 
have tested and attested to the wonderful com- 
forting power there is in prayer. 

19 



20 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

** Since I began," said Dr. Payson when a 
student, *' to beg God's blessing on my studies, 
I have done more in one week than in the whole 
year before." Luther, when most pressed with 
his gigantic toils, said : * * I have so much to do 
that I cannot get along without three hours a 
day of praying." General Havelock rose at 
four, if the hour of marching was six, rather 
than miss the precious privilege of communion 
with God before setting out. Sir Matthew 
Hale said: ^^ If I omit praying and reading 
God's Word in the morning nothing goes well 
all day." These men, as have all faithful 
Christians, found the comfort there is in 
prayer. 

What prayer has been to the individual it has 
been to the race. Think what volumes of 
prayer have gone up to God. Its comforting 
power to the race cannot be overestimated. It 
has been the source of untold blessedness and 
cheer to the people of earth. Could it all be 
put together, what a bundle of comfort it 
would make ! It is well for us to widen out our 
conception and think what a total of comfort 
prayer has given to God's people. 



THE COMFORT OF PRAYER 21 

Are you getting comfort out of prayer? It is 
your privilege as a Christian to find in it every 
day a mighty source of help and of blessedness 
to your life. If you are not finding in it such 
a blessing you should look well to know the 
reasons for this lack. 

One may be that you are not keeping tryst 
with Christ. You fail to meet him at the ap- 
pointed place. If you regularly go to the tryst- 
ing place, he will be found of you there. Irreg- 
ularity in your habits of prayer may be the 
reason you no longer get comfort out of prayer. 

Another possible reason is that you are over- 
strained with the labors of life. You have 
taken too much upon you. You are too hurried 
to think. If you pray, it is with divided or hur- 
ried mind. The things you have in hand seem 
so important that you must give them atten- 
tion, and so you give your prayers little time, 
thought or attention. No wonder you fail in 
getting the comfort of prayer. The only rem- 
edy is for you to drop some of your responsi- 
bilities until you come into possession of your- 
self. You cannot give yourself to God until 
you possess yourself. 



22 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

The other possible reason for lack of com- 
fort in prayer is indulged sin. There is no use 
in looking for comfort in prayer while cher- 
ished sin is in your life. We do not say sin, for 
we all sin and come short of the glory of God, 
but we cannot have comfort in prayer while 
sin unwatched-against, sin unfought-against, 
is there. The presence of permitted sin, cher- 
ished sin, is the most common cause of our lack 
of enjoying the comfort of prayer. 

Let us learn to value prayer more. We 
have read a description of a picture. There 
is represented a steeple of an old church. In 
the steeple is a bell and a rope hanging down 
toward the earth. Beside the bell calmly sits 
an owl, suggestive of the fact that the bell has 
not been used for a long time. Through a 
casement of the steeple one can see down be- 
low a little corner of a grave-yard, and running 
by it the street full of hurrying people. As a 
motto under the picture are the words, ^* Why 
don't they ring? " Why don't we ring? Why 
do we permit the bell-cord of prayer to hang 
all unused in the steeple, when if we would 
only ring we might have our lives all flooded 



THE COMFOET OF PRAYEE 23 

with the harmonies of heaven? Let us pull 
the rope ! Let us value prayer more ! Let us 
use it more as a means. We can have the mu- 
sic of heaven falling down and filling our lives 
with the sweetest melodies of comfort and peace 
and joy, if we will. Why don't you ring? 



IV. 

THE COMFOET OF THE CHUECH. 

During Absalom's rebellion David was at one 
time forced to remain an exile from Jerusalem. 
In a fit of homesickness of the soul he sat down 
and penned the Eighty-fourth Psalm. It would 
seem that he lamented his absence from Jeru- 
salem not so much because it was the royal 
city, as because it was the holy city, the place 
of God's temple and worship. Eestrained thus 
by force of circumstances from waiting upon 
God in his sanctuary, it seems that the want of 
the privilege made him all the more sensible of 
its worth. We see him with yearning desire 
facing Jerusalemward, exclaiming: '^ How 
amiable are thy tabernacles, Lord of hosts! 
My soul longeth, yea, even faint eth for the 
courts of the Lord." How beautiful in his 
exile God's house and service seemed! And 
how intense was his longing desire to enjoy 
them ! * * My heart and my flesh crieth out— ' ' ; 

24 



THE COMFORT OF THE CHUECH 25 

he longed, he fainted, he cried out in his de- 
sire to be restored to the enjoyment of God in 
his sanctuary. But he wanted also God him- 
self, the sense of his presence, of his love, of 
his communion; " My heart and my flesh 
crieth out for the living God." You have had 
that feeling — that you wanted God, wanted his 
presence, wanted him in your life, in your heart, 
your soul — your heart and your flesh crying 
out for the living God. There are multitudes of 
people everywhere who are well acquainted with 
this lonesomeness of heart, this homesickness of 
the soul, and especially in the way of a desire 
for a name and place in the sanctuary of God's 
Church. David in his banishment even be- 
grudged the happiness of the little birds that 
made their nests about the temple structure. 
Not those that flew over the temple on hasty 
wings; not those that made their nests in the 
trees of the wood ; but those he knew were about 
the temple, and made nests for themselves, and 
in which to lay their young in the buildings 
around the courts of God's house. He could 
wish himself with them ; for we hear him crying 
out in his spiritual homesickness: '^ Yea, the 



26 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow 
a njest for herself, where she may lay her young, 
even thine altars, Lord of hosts, my King, and 
my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy 
house." 

The Church is the spiritual home of God's 
people to-day as truly as was ever the Jerusa- 
lem temple to David. And every soul needs just 
such a home. Every true Christian should have 
a church home. God intended it to be so. It is 
one of the very best signs that we are Chris- 
tians if, like David, we love God's house and 
worship and people. Christ knew his followers 
would need the home associations of the Church, 
so he called them together as a family and pray- 
ed that they might be one. The figures under 
which his people are represented by Christ and 
his apostles tell of the same need. They are 
sheep, not scattered sheep, except when lost, but 
gathered into a flock. They are stones, not 
boulders here and there, but built together into 
a temple. They are not simply flourishing 
plants, but parts of one vine. They are not 
separate individuals, but members of the body 
of Christ, with one common life, and with rela- 



THE COMFOET OF THE CHUECH 27 

tions to each other as well as to their Head. 
The Church is a divine institution, provided to 
meet a felt need — a need inherent in our na- 
tures. See how men are ever inclined to asso- 
ciation. We know how it is and why it is that 
people read in circles, study in classes, play in 
companies, travel in parties, carry on business 
in firms, fight in regiments, associate in unions, 
ever thus voluntarily binding themselves to- 
gether. God knew that in religion his people 
would need such associations. He met that need 
by founding the Church, the perfection of hu- 
man society, where human society suns itself 
in the full radiance of his fatherly love. 

What are some of the sources of comfort 
brought to us by God's Church. One, as we 
have said, is the comfort of having a spiritual 
home. What a sad, uneasy thing life must be 
without a home ! There is no sickness more bit- 
ter than homesickness. It is said that many a 
Swiss has sunk a martyr to his longing for 
home. The malady is commonly brought on by 
hearing their celebrated national air at some 
unexpected moment when under the influence of 
dejected feelings. Overcome by the emotions 



28 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

awakened, he sheds tears, and can only be con- 
soled by the prospect of immediately returning 
to his home. If unable to accomplish this wish 
of his heart, he sinks into a profound melan- 
choly, which not unf requently terminates in dis- 
ease and death. 

We believe there is just such a restlessness, 
an uneasiness, a homesickness of the soul, which 
every Christian must feel who lives without a 
church home. We believe that there is a deep 
longing for the souPs home in the sanctuary 
which will not cease until that God-given desire 
is satisfied. And, oh, how much of church home- 
lessness there is in the world ! 

The need, too, is of one home. That is the 
natural way. You know that you can not have 
a dozen homes a week. That means you have 
no home. The man who, like a tortoise, carries 
his home around on his back, who tells you it is 
home wherever he hangs his hat, simply means 
that he has no home. God speaks of our being 
* ' planted in the house of the Lord. ' ' Well, you 
never expect fruit from a tree that is being con- 
tinually plucked up and transplanted from one 
place to another. Indeed the chances are not 



THE COMFORT OF THE CHURCH 29 

only of no fruit, but that the tree itself will die. 
It is an old saying, '' A rolling stone gathers 
no moss." And you may apply that to all 
church tramps. You never expect to get any 
real good work out of a tramp, do you? Just 
so true is it that you may expect very little from 
any wandering Christian who gives his soul no 
permanent resting place. We all need a church 
home, a place where our interests centre, where 
our hearts are fixed, where our souls are helped 
— one regularly attended, constantly served, 
and devotedly loved church home. 

We find comfort in the Church also as a feed- 
ing place for the soul. We need God's truth to 
nourish and strengthen us. Without it our 
faith becomes weak, our souls become sickly 
and ready to die. Our souls do really hunger, 
and we must have the '' bread of life " to sat- 
isfy them. Our souls are ever thirsty, and we 
need the *' water of life " to slake our burning 
desire. We are commanded to ^^ desire the sin- 
cere milk of the word, that we may grow 
thereby." Our souls need the Church and its 
ordinances as our bodies need bread; and the 
Christian who neglects the spiritual nourish- 



30 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

ment thus to be obtained must inevitably be- 
come weak in faith, cold in love, and sickly in 
soul. We need the church home as a place in 
which to grow spiritually strong. 

We find comfort in the Church as a source of 
sympathy and fraternal help. God calls his 
Church a family. He intends that each indi- 
vidual church shall be a family where are found 
love and sympathy and mutual helpfulness. It 
is one of the tests of discipleship, that if we 
love God we will love our brethren also. And 
let us not forget that, notwithstanding all that 
is said to the contrary by the enemies of Christ, 
there is a sympathy and a love, there is a spirit 
of encouragement and of helpfulness, found 
among the members of Christ's Church that is 
not found in the outside world. The Church 
has faults enough, and does not profess to be 
perfect; but one of the first commendations of 
her early days was the remark of her enemies : 
*' See how these Christians love one another." 
And, despite all the flings to the contrary, the 
time has never come yet when her members 
cannot truly sing: 

'^ Blest be the tie that binds 
Our hearts in Christian love." 



THE COMFOET OF THE CHUECH 31 

Among the mountains of Switzerland, where 
the difficulties and dangers of travellers are 
great, they have a way of binding a group of 
adventurers together. Before they commence 
the slippery and perilous ascent a strong cord 
is bound around the waist of each, and all are 
then tied together ; so that every one helps the 
other, and if a brother slips the others pull him 
up again. Just so helpful have the ties of 
Christian Church relationship been found to 
multitudes of members as they have felt the 
uplift of the mutual sympathy, the on-push of 
united effort, and the inspiration of a common 
purpose and love. And there are so many diffi- 
culties in the Christian life that we really need 
all the help we can get. The Church may have 
some faults, but we venture the opinion that 
seldom will you find a professing Christian 
who will not say that he was strengthened and 
helped by uniting himself with God's people. 
Blessed, very blessed, are all they who find a 
home in God's house! 



y. 

TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY. 

Some one has said that spiritual meditation 
is a lost art. There was undoubtedly more of 
it in past generations. The lack of it is indeed 
one of the religious lacks of our times. The 
main reason for the lack is apparent to all who 
give any thought to the subject. It is because 
of the tremendous rush and hurry of our mod- 
ern life. We are ** jostled out of our spiritual- 
ity." There is a beautiful hymn we sometimes 
sing, 

*' Take time to be holy, 
Speak oft with thy Lord; 
Abide in Him always, 
And feed on His Word ; 
Make friends of God's children, 
Help those who are weak. 
Forgetting in nothing 
His blessing to seek. 

Take time to be holy. 
The world rushes on; 
Spend much time in secret, 

32 



TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY 33 

With Jesus alone; 
By looking to Jesus, 
Like Him thou shalt be; 
Thy friends in thy conduct 
His likeness shall see." 



It does take time to be holy. We need to take 
time for meditation and prayer and fellowship 
with God if we would make any attainment in 
grace or growth is spiritual insight and char- 
acter. 

Few of us realize how great is the importance 
assigned to meditation in the Scriptures. It is 
distinctly commanded of God. Joshua was ex- 
horted to meditate on the book of the law day 
and night. Timothy was counselled: ** Medi- 
tate upon these things; give thyself wholly to 
them." The Philippians were told *' to think 
on these things." In the description of the 
good man, in the first Psalm, it is said that he 
meditates on the law of the Lord. We may 
also notice the resolutions of good men re- 
corded in the Psalms: ^* I will meditate on 
thee in the night watches," 63 : 6 ; ** I will medi- 
tate of all thy precepts," 119: 15; ^^ My medi- 
tation of him shall be sweet," 104:34. God 



34 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

criticised his people when they failed in this 
moral thonghtfulness, saying, ** My people do 
not consider." 

Spiritual meditation is a most proper occu- 
pation of the human mind. The power of 
thinking distinguishes us from the whole mate- 
rial universe, and spiritual things are certainly 
of such transcendent importance as to be 
worthy of our closest attention. Besides, our 
character in the sight of God depends on the 
character of our thoughts. *' As a man think- 
eth in his heart so is he," Prov. 23:7. Men 
are good according to their thoughts. They are 
also bad according to their thoughts. *' Out of 
the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders," etc. 

Meditation is also essential to the success of 
God's Word in our souls. Christ tells us in the 
parable of the sower that it is only those ** who 
having heard the word, keep it," that bring 
forth good fruit. By meditation the seed of 
truth sinks into deep earth and is '* kept " and 
becomes fruit-bearing. It was when the prod- 
igal ^' came to himself," when he began really 
to think, that he resolved to return to his 
father. It was when Peter ** thought thereon " 



TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY 35 

that lie ^' wept." Truth can affect us only as 
we think thereon. 

What are some good subjects for meditation? 
One is God's existence and attributes. It is one 
of the Bible designations of sinners that ^ ' none 
saith, Where is thy God, thy Maker. " It is the 
mark of the believer that he thinks about God 
and dwells in fervent and loving meditation 
upon his attributes of being, wisdom, power, 
holiness, justice, goodness and truth. 

Another is God's works. ^' 1 will meditate 
also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings,'' 
said the Psalmist. No one can ^' consider the 
heavens," the ^^ moon and the stars which he 
has ordained," '^ remember the works of his 
hands," ^' consider the lilies, how they grow," 
or study God's greatest work in the redemp- 
tion of man and not be immensely benefited and 
blessed by such meditation. 

Still another is God's words. If anything 
would seem to be worthy our special attention 
and thoughtful consideration it is God's direct 
utterances by his words. His revelations, his 
exhortations, his commands, his promises, how 
infinitely important they are, and how worthy 



36 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

of our closest thought, our most profound at- 
tention! Such meditation would be sure to 
lead us also to think about God's claims. 
These are worthy our special consideration on 
account of their comprehensiveness, their 
spirituality, their perpetual obligation, and our 
guilt if we neglect them. 

One other theme — our future. That we are 
to have an unending future is a great reality. 
It would be well for us all if we lost sight of it 
less and meditated more frankly and more fre- 
quently upon it. God makes this duty plain 
when he says : ' * Oh ! that they would consider 
their latter end! " 

There are some aids to meditation. The lost 
art can be regained. This power of getting 
into the middle of things, for that is what the 
word meditation means, of taking spiritual 
truth and musing upon it, thinking upon it, 
studying it deeply, this is an art which can be 
cultivated, a religious attainment possible to 
us all. 

A first aid toward spiritual meditation is to 
become deeply impressed with its value. Medi- 
tation leads to conversation. It would be easier 



TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY 37 

for us to ^^ talk of his doings " if we thought 
more about them. It leads to knowledge. 
Thinking always does. It leads to happiness. 
We would all be happier if we thought more 
about God, what he is, what he does, what he 
says, and thus come to know him better. 

Another aid is for us to bear in mind the in- 
fluence of habit and act accordingly. We shall 
not get time for meditation and shall be sure 
to neglect it unless we make set times for it and 
let it become a habit of our daily living. We 
must provide for a *' quiet hour " each morn- 
ing or evening, a '' still hour " with God each 
day, just as we do for a morning and evening 
prayer ; then, by and by, it will become a fixed 
habit, and both the art and the time for prac- 
ticing it will be gained. 

*^ Take time to think: 
Thought oft will save thee from the snare. 

Bring thee to cooling streams and bowers, 
Spare thee from nursing needless care, 

Surround thee with defensive towers ; 
Yield thee the harvest of content. 

Lift thee from dust to starry ways, 
Discover comfort heaven-sent 

In thy most dark and cheerless days ; 
Therefore, take time to think. 



38 GEOWING TOWAED GOD I 

Take time to pray: ] 
For when thou pray'st the vision 's cleared, 

The voice is toned, the will 's subdued, 

The dear are to thee more endeared, 'i 

And the soul's failing strength 's renewed. . ' 

In prayer the purest words are spoken, i 

The mind receives heaven's holy light, 1 

The heart is given the Spirit 's token, - 

The hands are charged with wisdom's might; ; 

Therefore, take time to pray. j 

Take time to praise: 

Praise is the witness that you see, i 

Or hear, or feel, or understand, i 

Or trust where there is mystery ! 

About the workings of His hand. ^ 

It is thy child-attempt to prove J 

Thy kinship with the hosts above, i 

Who, as they in God's presence move, j 

Praise Him for His exhaustless love ; j 

Therefore, take time to praise. \ 

Take time to work: j 

Know what a privilege it is 
To work with God, to have thy hand * 

Engaged for Him, thy energies 

Developing 'neath His command. j 

To share the stores of grace and truth i 

Which to His faithful ones are given ; j 

In service to maintain thy youth, 

And hear the Lord's ^Well done!' in heaven; ; 

Therefore, take time to work. ' ' ! 



VI. 

FAITH AND JOY. 

So universally do men seek after happiness 
and so widely does society in its organized 
forms seek it that many philosophers have de- 
clared happiness to be the final motive of all 
conduct, that all other motives are but shapes 
of this one all-prevailing motive. But alas! 
toward what different points of the moral com- 
pass do men look for happiness. Some look for 
it above and some below, some in the grandeur 
of the soul and some in the grossness of the 
senses, some in the heaven of purity and some 
in the hell of licentiousness. Multitudes of 
those who seek happiness fail to attain the 
object of their search, and usually from one of 
two simple reasons, either that they seek amiss, 
or else fail of recognizing in what direction 
real happiness is found. It would sound very 
strange to some devotee of pleasure, who thinks 
of the followers of Christ as a people of sad- 



40 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

ness, gloom and melancholy, to have it an- 
nounced to him that religion is the real source 
of happiness. And yet this is trne. It is not 
religion but the lack of it that makes people 
unhappy. Christianity is not only not opposed 
to pleasure, but it is the mightiest source of 
pleasure. ** Gladness is sown for the upright 
in heart." '' The fruit of the Spirit is love, 
joy, peace." '' Rejoice in the Lord alway, and 
again I say rejoice." ** Believing, we rejoice 
with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 

What then, is the relation between faith and 
joy? The relation seems to be implied in the 
very order of words, ** Believing ye rejoice." 
It is the relation of inseparability, the relation 
of cause and effect. The believing is the cause 
of the rejoicing. The faith brings the gladness. 
The trusting is the source of the happiness. 

There is another step in the production of 
joy out of faith that must not be overlooked. 
Faith is the cause of love and love is the cause 
of joy. In a verse in the First Epistle of Peter 
we are told who it is the Christian loves. It is 
the unseen Saviour: ^' Whom having not seen, 
ye love." Faith is to the soul what the eye is 



FAITH AND JOY 41 

to the body. It is the power of seeing. It is a 
cognition, or spiritual apprehension. It is not 
merely light, but discernment. It sees not the 
object merely, but its excellence also. It pro- 
duces congeniality, or sympathy, a feeling of 
actual interest and delight. It also appro- 
priates, gives us the consciousness that in some 
sense the object is ours. This is the way in 
which faith in Christ produces love to Christ. 
It is the faculty by which we apprehend, ap- 
prove and appropriate him. Having come thus 
to love him, joy is the fruit of love. Love is in 
itself a joyous affection. It is in its nature 
happy. God is love; all the blessed love and 
are blest by the fact that they love. Confidence 
is joy. '^ Believing, we rejoice." 

Let us not fail to notice also the nature of the 
joy faith produces. It is *' unspeakable.'^ 
*' With joy unspeakable and full of glory," con- 
tinues the apostle. That is, it is unspeakably 
great ; it is also in its nature not a noisy, but a 
deep and silent thing. In this sense, too, it is 
*' unspeakable." And that is the reason we 
doubt not, why it is so often mistaken for the 
opposite. Because it is calm and sometimes 



42 GEOWING TOWARD GOD 

grave the world thiaks it severe. But, as has 
been said, * ' the gods approve the depth and not 
the tumult of the soul." We spoke of happi- 
ness at the beginning, but happiness is a some- 
what shallow, superficial word. It signifies 
what happens, what comes to us by hap or 
chance, having reference largely to our circum- 
stances or our material welfare. But '* joy " 
is a nobler word, signifying a more deep, sin- 
cere and quiet thing, a ** calm rapture," as Jon- 
athan Edwards called it. There is nothing 
boisterous, tumultuous, hilarious about it. It 
doesn't express itself in laughter, nor sing 
comic songs. It is '^ joy unspeakable "; not a 
thing to be talked about, but to be felt. 

It is also joy '^ glorified." True Christian 
joy is glorified joy, says the apostle. That is, it 
has the glory of heaven shining upon it, filling, 
su:ffusing, transfiguring, intensifying it. In 
other words, there is no other joy anything like 
so rich, so deep, so full, so blessed as this joy 
which comes with religion, which springs out of 
faith. '^ Believing, we rejoice." 

It is a joy, too, that rises above all sorrow 
and trouble. Suffering saints often have been 



FAITH AND JOY 43 

the most joyful. '* We rejoice, though now for 
a season, if need be, we are in heaviness." 
** As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing." 

It is our duty to be joyful and our privilege 
to spread joy among others. It is also an ef- 
fective means of commending the religion of 
Christ to others. 

*' Take joy home, 

And make a place in thy heart for her ; 
And give her time to grow, and cherish her ; 
Then will she come and sing to thee 
When thou art working in the furrow ; ay, 
It is a comely fashion to be glad; 
Joy is the grace we say to God." 



vn. 

EELIGION'S PLEASANT WAYS. 

It is not religion but the lack of it that makes 
people unhappy. Yet how strangely and how 
widely the opposite view prevails. There are 
many who think of religion not only as a gall- 
ing drudgery, but as the surest source of 
moroseness, melancholy and unhappiness of 
life. Their idea is that religion is a system of 
suffering to which many people are willing to 
submit here in order that they may not suffer 
hereafter,— that religion's only happiness is 
in the future, its rewards after death. Instead, 
the real fact is that religion is a thing of pres- 
ent joy and ever continuing blessedness. It is 
the gladdest, happiest thing in all this world. 
'^ Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all 
her paths are peace." It is religion that gives 
us the bright things in life and sin the dark 
things, not vice versa. Eeligion goes down to 
the deepest springs of our mental and spiritual 

44 



EELIGION'S PLEASANT WAYS 45 

well-being. It brings untold measures of peace 
and joy. It takes the sting out of the past. It 
takes tbe worry out of the present. It takes 
the fear out of the future. 

Eeligion's way is a safe way. Walking in re- 
ligion's way we have God as our Keeper. '' He 
that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor 
sleep. ' ' God walks with us and by us and keeps 
us from harm. When a child is travelling with 
his father he is not afraid. When we enter 
religion's way we begin a walk with God. We 
are absolutely safe. 

The good things we have on the way also 
make it pleasant. We have all the good things 
of earth and heaven. The whole world belongs 
to our Father in heaven. It is not true that 
the world belongs to Satan. It belongs to God, 
and he controls it for the good of his people. 
** Godliness is profitable unto all things having 
promise of the life that now is and of that 
which is to come." 

Then, too, the work we do on the way makes 
it pleasant. It is in accord with the profound- 
est philosophy, as well as with the widest ex- 
perience, that there is no such happiness as 



46 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

that whicli springs from the effort to benefit 
others. A yonng boy said to his mother : ^ ^ I 
tried to make little sister happy while you were 
away. She would not be happy; but I was 
happy trying." Usually we can make people 
happy when we try ; but whether we succeed or 
not we are sure to be happy trying. He who 
sees in his neighbor a brother in Christ, and 
who for the love he bears to Christ puts him- 
self out in order to be helpful to that brother, 
always finds a spring of gladness bursting out 
in his heart as the waters did out of the rock 
which Moses smote. 

As we walk in the way of religion it is pleas- 
ant, moreover, to think of what is at its end. 
At the end of the way we will meet the shining 
ones, who will take us to heaven. The fact that 
we have no fear for the future, the conscious- 
ness that it is well with our souls, the bright 
prospect of heaven at the end, these contribute 
mightily toward making the way of religion a 
pleasant way for all who walk in it. 

Out of these facts grows a duty. It is the 
duty of joy. *^ Gladness is sown for the up- 
right in heart," and we ought as Christians to 



EELIGION'S PLEASANT WAYS 47 

make it plain that we are reaping the harvest 
of such sowing. It is our duty to make religion 
welcome by making it winsome. Some people 
seem to think there is no occasion for an effort 
in this direction, that religion is sufficiently 
winsome in itself, or, if not, that there is some- 
thing out of taste, if not morally culpable, in 
trying to make it seem so. But certainly it is 
our duty to do what we can to lead others to 
realize that the religious life is a happy life, a 
life of gladness and reward. 

We owe this duty of joy, for one thing, for 
religion's sake. Christianity would get much 
impulse forward if it could be everywhere so 
coromended that people would learn that it is 
not only not opposed to pleasure, but the very 
greatest source of pleasure. We owe this duty 
of joy also for Christ's sake. It is a way of 
highly honoring him, this showing forth of the 
delights of following such a Master. You owe 
this duty of joy, too, for your own sake. You 
owe it to yourself to be happy in your religion. 
You are cheating yourself out of a great priv- 
ilege when you are not. You owe this duty of 
joy, finally, for others' sakes. You owe it in the 



48 GROWING TOWARD GOD ] 

way both of helping other Christians to be glad, ] 
and of inclining those who are not Christians ' 
to enter upon religion's way of pleasantness. | 
When the spies went over into Canaan, the wise 
ones brought back of the grapes of Eschol in i 
order to induce their friends to go over into a \ 
land where such fruits abounded. We owe it j 
to others to show them the good fruits of the ] 
Christian life that they, too, may be induced to ' 
enter. Make your religion attractive. Culti- 
vate and illustrate all the sweet, gentle, uplift- i 
ing, joyful qualities which Christianity sug- 
gests. Let it be seen that Christ is an attrac- j 
tive Master to you. Let it be seen that his | 
service is light and love and liberty. So will \ 
you win others to join you in following him. 



vni. 

CELESTIAL INVESTMENTS. 

Christ tells us plainly that there are two 
kinds of treasures which it is possible for peo- 
ple to possess. One he speaks of as belonging 
to the earth and the other to heaven, one as ex- 
posed to danger and destruction and the other 
as beyond the reach of any contingency what- 
soever. 

And his words are so plain that there is no 
difficulty at all in determining the exact nature 
of these treasures. The one sort unquestion- 
ably includes all worldly possessions, and the 
other all spiritual excellences. The call Christ 
makes is that we shall counsel with him in the 
matter of our investments, saying that he is 
able to give us points in finance. He asks us to 
trust him at least as far as we would some 
earthly stock expert. People will listen to men 
as they advise the investing in this stock or 
that. Even a stranger can come along intro- 

49 



50 GEOWING TOWARD GOD 

ducing ** Bohemian Oats," and he will not fail 
in finding many who will listen to his scheme 
and invest in the fraud. Five-hundred-and- 
twenty-per-eent Miller of Brooklyn got hun- 
dreds of people to invest with him, though he 
presented them not one cent's worth of secur- 
ity. People fairly tumbled over one another in 
their rush to invest, to their utter undoing ; and 
yet, how few there are who will listen for a 
moment to one who tells them of investments 
that pay both for this life and the life that is 
to come ! As one who knows all about this life 
and that life, and who comes to us as an expert 
to be counselled with about investments, 
Christ 's distinct and definite advice is this, that 
we all *' lay up for ourselves treasures in 
heaven,'' that we make large deposits in the 
celestial bank, giving, as he does, the good and 
sufficient reason that that is the only bank 
where deposits are good both now and after 
death, both here and hereafter. 

It is a fact, then, that spiritual wealth can be 
accumulated. The expression ** lay up," or 
amass, makes this inference fully warranted. 
His command is, ^' Lay up for yourselves 



CELESTIAL INVESTMENTS 51 

treasures in heaven. ' ^ The treasures, then, are 
yours; not put there for some one else. They 
are to accumulate for you there in a place the 
safest of the safe. It is possible, then, for us 
to lay up treasures for ourselves in heaven. 
This same is what Christ meant when he told 
us to ' ^ provide for ourselves bags that wax not 
old." It is what he meant when he told the 
young man of the gospel: '^ Go and sell all 
that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou 
shalt have treasure in heaven." It is what 
Paul meant when he told Timothy to exhort 
the rich '^ that they do good, that they be rich 
in good works, ready to distribute, willing to 
communicate ; laying up in store for themselves 
a good foundation against the time to come." 
The fact is that every man is every day in- 
creasing his spiritual stock. The spiritual ac- 
cumulations of our earthly life are every day 
passing over into the lines of the heavenly life 
and becoming eternal. Moral accumulation is 
the great law of our being. Our whole life is a 
treasuring up. 

There is another inference from Christ's 
command to lay up treasures in heaven and the 



52 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

way we see it obeyed,— it is that the heavenly 
accumulations of the saved will differ. Some 
begin to obey this command earlier in life than 
others. Some are very active in obeying it, 
while others are not. The Christian who has 
given God but little service, or the fag end of 
life only, will be saved; but he will have little 
or nothing in the way of heavenly investments. 
Every one who is so happy as to get to heaven 
will have in God's presence ** fullness of joy " 
and at his right hand ^' pleasures forever- 
more "; but that does not say that they will 
have joys and pleasures alike. A pint cup and 
a quart cup may be full to overflowing. But 
the quart cup holds more. The Bible makes it 
very plain that there will be differences among 
the redeemed. Some will be saved *^ so as by 
fire," but the house they have built of *^ wood, 
hay and stubble, ' ' no work or poor work, ' ^ shall 
be burned." It speaks of '* greatest " and 
^* least " in the kingdom of heaven, of some as 
having an ^ ^ abundant entrance, ' ' and distinctly 
tells us to '^ lay up for ourselves treasures in 
heaven," thereby assuring us that it is both 
possible and worth our while to do so. 



CELESTIAL INVESTMENTS 53 

The accumulation of spiritual wealth should 
become with us a dominant passion. All men 
are swayed by either secular or spiritual in- 
terests. It is impossible to live under the sov- 
ereign control of both. '* No man can serve 
two masters." ** Ye cannot serve God and 
Mammon. ' ' One or the other must be the dom- 
inant power. Therefore the Christian must 
chose between coming under the sway of the 
world spirit or the other-world spirit, between 
making Mammon master or God master, be- 
tween the making the accumulation of worldly 
wealth or the accumulation of spiritual wealth 
his dominant desire. Christ told us plainly 
which to choose. He thoroughly understood 
human nature. He said that our hearts will 
point to our treasure as does the needle to the 
pole, and therefore urges that with single-eyed 
concentration of energy we set ourselves to 
the laying up treasure in heaven, making it 
the master passion of our lives to secure for 
ourselves large celestial accumulations. This 
we may do by devotion to the cause of 
Christ, eifort to promote the glory of Christ, 
striving to extend the kingdom of Christ, and 



54 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

tlie helping to turn men from sin unto Christ, 
while all the time following after holiness in 
our souls, '^ without which no man shall see 
the Lord." 

* * We build our heaven as we go along, ' ' said 
an aged saint, one day. *' I once had friends," 
said she, ** who were travelling abroad for sev- 
eral years. They intended to build a home on 
their return, and the dream of the home that 
was to be went with them in all their journey- 
ings. When they could secure a beautiful pic- 
ture, statue, or vase, they purchased it, even 
at the cost of temporary inconvenience, and 
sent it home to await their coming. Eare and 
curious treasures, which would afterward be 
linked with happy memories, they forwarded 
for their future enjoyment. I love to think," 
she added, ' ^ that we are doing the same for our 
heavenly home, in these pilgrimage days on 
earth. The kindly deed that made a picture in 
somebody's life, the little sacrifice that blos- 
somed into joy, the helpful friendship cut sud- 
denly short maybe — all these we shall find 
again; and the patience we have gained, the 
* song in the night ' which we have learned — 



CELESTIAL INVESTMENTS 55 

whatever of beauty, tenderness, faith, or love 
we have put into other lives or our own — all 
these will be among our treasures in heaven." 

Verily it is true that we build our heaven as 
we go along. Every loving thought that we 
think, every kind word that we say, every kind 
deed that we do will be among the treasures 
that we shall find accumulated there. 

Such accumulated spiritual wealth is abso- 
lutely imperishable. This is what Christ said; 
that secular treasures are exposed to danger; 
money will rust, grain become blighted, gar- 
ments moth-eaten and that all alike are exposed 
to the thief, but that spiritual wealth is im- 
perishable. ^^ Therefore," he says, ^^ lay not 
up on earth, but lay up in heaven, where neither 
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves 
do not break through nor steal." It is not pos- 
sible for spiritual wealth to perish. It can be 
eaten by no moth, corrupted by no canker, stolen 
by no thief. The reason is that it is not some- 
thing outside of a man, nor added to a man. 
It is the man. It is riches incorporated into 
his being, a part of and as imperishable as his 
identity, as imperishable as his very soul. 



IX. 

CHEIST DWELLING WITHIN. 

There is in a Eussian palace a famous 
^* Saloon of Beauty," in wMcli are hung over 
eight hundred and fifty portraits of young 
women. The pictures were all painted for 
Catherine the Second, the Empress. They are 
beautiful pictures of beautiful women, the 
artist having made a journey through all the 
fifty provinces of the Russian empire to find 
his models. The painter was extremely desir- 
ous of pleasing his royal patron, and, very hap- 
pily for him, he struck upon the idea of making 
every picture convey a half concealed compli- 
ment to the Empress. In each picture may be 
detected by the close observer some hidden, 
delicate reference to the royal person for whom 
they were painted; in one some favorite sur- 
rounding is seen; in another some favorite 
adornment; in others some jewel, or fashion, 
or flower, or style of dress ; so that in each one 

56 



CELESTIAL INVESTMENTS 57 

something characteristic of the Empress is 
seen, all tributes to her beauty or compliments 
to her taste. The walls, therefore, really re- 
flect the Empress herself in whatever direction 
you look. 

The artist, Count Eotari, made his own name 
immortal because of his inventive ingenuity in 
the flattery of an earthly monarch. But may 
we not make a spiritual application of this fact 
and in doing so find pointed out to us some- 
thing worthy of our utmost endeavors? Was it 
not something very like this artist's devotion, 
only in a higher, worthier sphere, that Paul 
was being moved by when he said: '^ I live; 
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; and the life 
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith 
of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave him- 
self for me ''! The world saw Paul the Apos- 
tle, but at the same time they saw Christ in the 
person of his disciple. Every grace that Paul 
possessed was but a faint reflection of the per- 
fect beauty of Christ. Every virtue which Paul 
exhibited was only a manifestation in a lesser 
degree of the holiness of his sinless Lord ; each 
beauty in person or character a faint showing 



58 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

forth of Him whom he imitated, ^ ' the One alto- 
gether lovely. '* 

But the reason Paul was able in any degree 
to manifest Christ was far more vital and deep- 
seated than eonld be illustrated by any paint- 
er's power to put character and beauty on his 
canvas. The secret was that Christ dwelt 
within him. ' ' I live ; yet not I, but Christ liv- 
eth in me." 

Christ's indwelling in believers is a divinely 
stated fact. It is a great mystery, but it is a 
great fact. It is an unique but glorious truth 
that the Lord Jesus Christ actually makes his 
home in the hearts of his faithful people. A 
great mystery it is, indeed; but so are human 
life and the eternity of God and the incarnation 
of Christ profound mysteries, yet we accept 
them. We are plainly told in God's Word that 
God dwelleth in us, and that Christ is in us our 
hope of glory. Christ's parting promise was 
that if we kept his words he would come and 
make his abode with us. Christ ' ' dwells in our 
hearts through faith." The figure of speech 
represents the idea of a building, a temple, with 
the Christ resident within as the indwelling 



CELESTIAL INVESTMENTS 59 

guest. Far more must be implied than mere 
divine influence over us, such as a friend exerts 
over a friend, a teacher over a pupil, or even a 
mother over a child. The fact is that to become 
a Christian is to have a new and spiritual life 
enter the soul, as when a seed with its living 
germ is planted in the dead soil. 

Christians experience many blessed results 
from Christ's indwelling. One is that we are 
moved by a new motive. *^ The love of Christ 
constraineth us." There is all the difference 
in the world between trying to force ourselves 
under the pressure of duty and the being moved 
by love. It is exactly the difference between 
having Christ outside us and having him 
within. Only as we get Christ into our hearts 
and let him dwell with us by his Spirit, will we 
find the right motive moving us, or that we are 
really attaining to any true ideal of the Chris- 
tian life. 

Another result is the gradual expulsion of 
evil. Indeed, this expulsion may be very rapid 
if we will let Christ have full possession of our 
hearts. *' Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 
fulfill the lusts of the flesh.'' 



60 GKOWING TOWAED GOD 

Another result is joy, — a joy that the world 
can neither give or take away. Christ within 
makes an inner joy that all earth's trials and 
sorrows cannot quench. 

Another result is the gradual transformation 
of the Christian into the likeness of Christ him- 
self. 

'^ Finish then Thy new creation, 

Pure and spotless let us be; 
Let us see Thy great salvation 

Perfectly restored in Thee ! 
Changed from glory into glory. 

Till in Heaven we take our place, 
Till we cast our crowns before Thee, 

Lost in wonder, love and praise." 

How much is there about us to remind those 
who see us of Christ 1 Every manifestation of 
truth and holiness in us is only a new tribute, 
like the painter's tribute to his Empress, but 
in an infinitely higher realm, to him who is the 
Truth, the Life, the Way, the Holy One of 
God. The first move toward a Christian life is 
the opening of our hearts to the knocking Sav- 
iour. After that the degree of our holiness will 
depend upon the degree to which we give him 
welcome house-room in our hearts. 



ABIDING WOEK. 

There is a familiar story of an old black- 
smith and his chain. The blacksmith lived in 
the heart of a great city and all day long people 
conld hear the clanging of his hammer npon the 
anvil, and they knew that he was forging a 
chain. Now and then idlers dropped in to 
watch his work, and as they saw how faithful 
and patient he was, and how he would never 
pass over a link until it was absolutely perfect, 
they laughed at him and told him he would get 
ever so much more accomplished if he did not 
take so much pains. But the old smith only 
shook his head and kept on doing his best. At 
last he died, and was laid away in the church- 
yard, and the great chain which lay in his shop 
was put on board a ship. It was coiled up out 
of the way, and for a long time no one 
noticed it. 

But there came a fierce, wild night in the win- 

61 



62 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

ter when the wind blew a gale, the rain dashed 
down in torrents, and vivid flashes of lightning 
darted through the sky. The ship toiled 
through the waves, and strained and groaned 
as she obeyed the helm. It took three men at 
the wheel to guide her. They let go her anchor, 
and the great chain went rattling over the deck 
into the gloomy waves. At last the anchor 
touched the bottom and the chain, made by the 
old blacksmith, grew as taut and stiff as a bar 
of iron. Would it hold? 

That was the question every one asked as the 
gale increased. If one link, just one link, was 
imperfect and weak, they were lost. But the 
faithful old smith had done his best in each 
link. The chain held. 

Could we realize how much of our own future 
destiny and of the welfare of others is bound 
up in our present action, would we not as Chris- 
tians try to do far better work than we do? 

To help this thought get still stronger hold 
upon our minds let us drop this figure of a 
chain and change to the Bible illustration of the 
building of a house. The Bible makes a plain 
distinction between mere work and work that 



ABIDING WORK 63 

abides. Even on as good a foundation as Jesus 
Christ himself one may build well or ill, may 
build of either '* gold, silver and precious 
stones," or of *' wood, hay and stubble.'' We 
are bidden be careful how we build because 
*' the fire shall try every man's work of what 
sort it is. If any man's work abide, ... he 
shall receive a reward. If any man's work 
shall be burned, he shall suffer loss ; but he him- 
self shall be saved ; yet so as by fire. ' ' The pas- 
sage in which these words are found clearly 
assumes that the builder is already a Christian, 
one who is building upon Christ, and will, there- 
fore, himself be saved; but the warning is spe- 
cifically directed against this same Christian's 
making poor work. The words picture to us a 
man whose poorly constructed house burns over 
his head, though he himself escapes through 
the flames. The man has been spending his 
time and strength to little purpose. He has 
built, indeed, on the true foundation, but he 
has reared upon it so much which was unsound 
and even false, that he himself must be saved 
with difficulty, and only with the loss of much 
of the reward which he had expected. 



64 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

The Christian with his works will be saved as 
different parts of a building are saved, by prov- 
ing to be gold or silver under the test of fire. 
How careful ought we to be lest our works 
prove to be only wood, hay or stubble! The 
simple fact that we build upon Christ will not 
insure that our building will be good. We must 
be careful how and what we build, and with 
what materials we make the superstructure. 
Men who are Christians are too often found 
teaching false doctrines, or dogmas that lack 
the substantial, vital power of Christianity. 
How many vain substitutes and foolish conceits, 
how much false theology, how many mistaken 
views of piety, how many foolish and hurtful 
errors have been propagated by men who were 
themselves Christians! Every such work, 
however carefully reared, shall be tested by fire. 
H it shall not be found to bear the test of the in- 
vestigation of the last great day, then just as a 
cottage of wood, hay and stubble would not 
bear the application of fire, so that man's work 
shall be found to consume away. If a man's 
doctrines have not been true, if he has had mis- 
taken views of piety, if he has wrongly nour- 



ABIDING WORK 65 

ished feelings which he imagined were those of 
religion, if he has inculcated practices which, 
however well meant, were not such as the gos- 
pel produces, if he has fallen into error of opin- 
ion or feeling or practice, however conscien- 
tious he may have been, yet he shall suffer loss ; 
his works shall be destroyed. God sees and 
cares what kind of work we make. Certainly 
we should aim to do abiding work, work that 
will stand the strongest tests. We may be sure 
that our building must pass the scrutiny of 
God's all-seeing eye. '^ God will bring every 
work into judgment, with every secret thing, 
whether it be good or whether it be evil. ' ' 

It is sad to think how unsubstantial and un- 
enduring much of our work is. A sight famil- 
iar to summer visitors at Asbury Park will il- 
lustrate and enforce the thought. Night after 
night, under an electric light, at a certain spot 
upon the beach a sand sculptor used to come 
and delight the promenaders. Early in the 
twilight he would begin to heap the sand into 
mounds, and as the crowds gathered, he would 
begin his task. His only tool was a short, slim 
stick. He would kneel upon the sand, and with 



66 QEOWING TOWAED GOD 

skillful motions, pat and hollow and monld it 
into marvelous shapes of beauty. An itinerant 
artist he was, going from place to place, spend- 
ing his time and pains upon the shifting sands. 
Before every day dawned the tide had leveled 
the mounds and obliterated every trace of his 
really beautiful images. Invariably the thought- 
ful admirer would sigh because the man was 
not modelling a more lasting material. But 
conversation with him revealed that he was 
satisfied. By passing his hat his daily wants 
were met. Some other means of livelihood he 
takes for the winter, but each summer he goes 
again to the beach, like the wrecker, for what 
silver he can pick up along the peopled shore. 

But why be impatient with this man more 
than others? All around us are men working 
in the sand. With many it is not the story of a 
summer only, but of a whole lifetime written in 
nothing more substantial than the shifting 
sand. So little good remains, so unsubstantial 
were the materials used, so unwisely chosen 
was the work done that the testing tides oblit- 
erated every token of the labor. A solemn 
voice speaks to each one of us and says: *' Ye 



[IBIDINa WORK 67 

have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and 
ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth 
fruit, and that your fruit should remain." 
May it be ours to do lasting work, real abiding 
work, work that will stand the tests of time, or 
tide, or fire. 



XL 

CELESTIAL CITIZENSHIP. 

When Christianity commands us to have our 
citizenship in heaven it does not require us to 
be bad citizens of the world where we now are. 
A man may make some hearty attachments 
where he tarries, pay tribute and live cheer- 
fully and helpfully, and yet none the less de- 
sire a better country, a city first in his love and 
always in his hopes. So the Bible teaching is 
that we can be faithful to every present rela- 
tionship, and yet never forget our celestial pa- 
triotism, that we can be in this world without 
*' minding earthly things." 

We have read that some years ago a travel- 
ler who had recently returned from Jeru- 
salem, discovering in conversation with the 
great Humboldt that he was fully as familiar 
with the streets and houses of Jerusalem as 
he himself had become, suddenly asked the 
aged philosopher, in surprise: ^* How long is 

68 



CELESTIAL CITIZENSHIP 69 

it since yon visited there?" Humboldt re- 
plied: *^ I have never been there, but I ex- 
pected to go sixty years since, and I prepared 
myself. ' ' 

Should there not be something quite corre- 
sponding with this in the way of spiritual 
information and heavenly-mindedness that 
should characterize every Christian? Should 
not the heavenly home be as familiar to those 
who expect to dwell there eternally? 

But heavenly citizenship has heavenly obli- 
gations. One of these has to do with our con- 
versation. Speech betrays nationality. Our 
every-day speech should be such that our citi- 
zenship will stand revealed. A man's speech 
likewise indicates the company he keeps. It is 
not a bad index to one's prevalent state of mind 
and traits of character. 

In one of his books, Mr. Spurgeon tells of a 
friend of his who once came over to America. 
He was from Essex. He landed in Boston, 
where he knew no one, and became somewhat 
homesick. But walking along the docks he 
heard a gentleman, as a workman happened to 
let fall a cask, say: " Look out there, or else 



70 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

you will make a Coggeshall job of it." Mr. 
Spurgeon's friend addressed the man at once, 
saying, ^' You are an Essex man, I know, for 
that is a proverb never used anywhere but in 
Essex; give me your hand." They were 
friends at once. So should there be a ring of 
true metal about our speech and conversation 
so that when a brother meets us he can say: 
'' You are a Christian, I know, for only Chris- 
tians speak like that, or act like that. * Thou 
also wast with Jesus of Nazareth, for thy 
speech betrayeth thee.' " 

An obligation closely related to this is that of 
heavenly conduct. As a Christian is allied to 
such a country, a suitable mode of living be- 
comes him. Our acts should be all such as are 
consistent with our dignity as heavenly citi- 
zens. Indeed, this is one of the most noticeable 
ways in which celestial citizenship will betray 
itself. 

We are told that during the war of the Scot- 
tish clans, MacGregor's son was made to ex- 
change clothes with a peasant lad, in order that 
he might not be known, and thus be in less dan- 
ger. Both boys were captured, however, and 



CELESTIAL CITIZENSHIP 71 

the question that puzzled the captors was, 
*' Which is MacGregor's son?'' The boys 
were brought to the palace and watched. The 
peasant lad showed no familiarity with the ap- 
purtenances of the palace, but betook himself to 
the servants' quarters, where he felt at home. 
MacGregor's son, on the contrary, made use of 
the palace as though he belonged there ; and so 
revealed his identity. This is the way it should 
be with us as Christians. Our conduct and the 
spirit of our life should betray us, should make 
manifest that we are high-born and high-bred 
and aim for a high destiny. People should take 
knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus 
and learned of him. We should, in fact, seek 
while we are here to keep up the manners and 
customs of the good old fatherland, so that, as 
in China or Japan the natives say, ** There 
goes an American," so men should be able to 
say here in our home land, '* There goes a 
heavenly citizen; he is in the world, ministers 
to its good, but is not of it." 

Let us not forget that " conversation " 
means '* being conversant." When two people 
talk together, it is called ** conversation." The 



72 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

reason is that they are supposed to be '* con- 
versant " with the subject about which they 
are speaking. And being ^' conversant '' 
means the ^* going up and down in a thing." 
That is the literal meaning of the word. We 
'* go up and down," move about in, and there- 
fore we are '* conversant " with the things and 
the people and the city in which we live. This 
is why ** citizenship " is in the Bible called 
'^ conversation." *' Our conversation," that is 
our familiar habits, our daily life and routine, 
that with which we have to do, our ** conver- 
sation," our '^ citizenship " should be *' in 
heaven. ' ' Whatever incompatibility there may 
seem to be, therefore, between having a resi- 
dence in one world and a conversation in an- 
other, Christianity boldly meets and puts it 
out of the way. As we have seen, in the old 
Anglo-Saxon, a man's '' conversation " meant 
not the mere act of his tongue, but his whole 
life and conduct, and so revealed to what king- 
dom his heart belonged. 

Our American representative, as we know, 
has a temporary residence in Athens. He is 
sent there by our government. But though liv- 



CELESTIAL CITIZENSHIP 73 

ing on tliat foreign soil, occupied daily with its 
affairs, its landscape winning his admiration, 
and its faces and manners his good will, yet he 
remembers that his stay is to be short; he is 
expecting to be called back where his treasure 
is and where his heart abides. This should be 
the attitude of the Christian, and we should 
cultivate heavenly dispositions, heavenly hab- 
its, heavenly affections, and familiarity with 
heavenly things. 

To this end we will also maintain heavenly 
communication. We will keep in correspon- 
dence with heaven. Just as people in a foreign 
land are always glad to have letters from their 
country, so should we gladly and continuously 
have communication with our fatherland, both 
from and to. We will send our prayers there 
as letters to our Father, and we will get his 
letters back through his Holy Spirit and in the 
pages of his Word. By meditation, by fellow- 
ship with his people, by encouraging the pres- 
ence of his Spirit in our hearts, and in many 
other ways, we will seek to keep up the connec- 
tion between ourselves and our fatherland 
above, and make ourselves more and more fit 



74 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

for residence there when the time of God's call 
shall come. 

*' For our conversation (citizenship R. V.) 
is in heaven ; from whence also we look for the 
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall 
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned 
like unto his glorious body. ' ' 



xn. 

EEYERSES AND PEOSPERITY. 

The question is sometimes asked, * ' WMcli is 
harder to bear, reverses or prosperity?" 
There are peculiar temptations that come with 
being abased. There are other, and possibly 
even greater temptations, that come with being 
exalted. Paul knew both, and he had learned 
how rightly to bear both. ^^ I know," he says, 
^' how to be abased,"— that is to have reverses 
and to be in circumstances of want,— ^* and I 
know how to abound,"— that is to have an 
abundance. He had been in circumstances 
where he had an ample supply for all his 
wants, knowing what it was to have enough. 
He had been in circumstances of want, know- 
ing what it was to lack. It certainly re- 
quires as much grace, if not more, to keep 
the heart right in prosperity than it does 
in adversity; for adversity of itself does 
something toward keeping the mind right, 

75 



76 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

while prosperity does nothing in that di- 
rection. But Paul had learned the proper 
conduct and spirit with which to meet both. 
'' I am instructed,'' he says, '* both to be full 
and to be hungry, both to abound and to suiter 
need." The Greek word he used meaning ^' in- 
structed " is one commonly used in relation to 
the ancient '^ mysteries," or secret societies. 
In the case of those mysteries it was only the 
** initiated " who were made acquainted with 
the lessons that were taught there. In saying 
that he had learned, or been instructed in the 
art of knowing how to be abased and how to 
abound, he means that he had * ' gotten into the 
secret of it." The exact meaning is that he 
had been '^ initiated " into it, somewhat after 
the case of one joining a secret society; for he 
uses the exact Greek word denoting the cele- 
brated sacred and secret rites of initiation into 
the Elusinian mysteries required of Athenian 
citizens. So Paul says that he had been in- 
itiated into the secrets to be taught by both 
trials and prosperity. He had learned to be 
full, how to have an ample supply for all his 
wants and yet observe the laws of temperance 



EEVEESES AND PROSPEEITY 77 

and soberness and to cherish the spirit of 
humility and gratitude, and he had learned 
how to be hungry also, to be in circumstances 
of want and yet not murmur or complain. 

There may be still another idea suggested by 
what he said. The condition of Paul was not 
always the same. He passed through great and 
sometimes rapid reverses. At one time he had 
abundance, but suddenly he was reduced to 
want. At one time he was in a state that might 
be regarded affluent, but only soon to be 
brought down to poverty. Yesterday poor and 
hungry, to-day all necessities supplied. He 
may have intended to give special emphasis to 
his thought by implying the fact that it is in 
these sudden reverses that grace is most 
needed,— that it is in these rapid changes of 
life that it becomes most difficult to learn the 
lessons of faith and contentment. It is true 
that men grow accustomed to an even tenor of 
life, no matter what it is, and learn to shape 
their temper and calculations according to it. 
But these lessons of faith and philosophy van- 
ish quickly when the persons pass suddenly 
from one extreme to another, finding their con- 



78 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

dition in life suddenly changed. Such changes 
are constantly occurring. God tries his people 
not by a steady course of prosperity or by long- 
continued and uniform adversity, but by quick 
transition from the one to the other. And it 
often happens that the grace which would have 
been quite sufficient for either continued pros- 
perity or continued adversity fails in the sud- 
den change from the one to the other. But 
whether it was to be a condition of want or a 
condition of affluence, or to suffer quick transi- 
tion from the one to the other, still Paul had 
been initiated into the secret of how to bear all 
with Christian discreetness and grace and 
fortitude and to find in God's will his peace. 

Taking his life as an example let us inquire 
a little more closely just how we ought to bear 
business reverses. For one thing, we should 
bear them improvingly. ** Adversity," some 
one has said, * * is the diamond-dust heaven pol- 
ishes its jewels with." " What is defeat?" 
asked Wendell Phillips. *^ Nothing but educa- 
tion; nothing but the first steps to something 
better." ** I have been beaten, but not cast 
down," said Thiers, after making a complete 



EEVERSES AND PEOSPERITY 79 

failure of his first speech in the Chamber of 
Deputies. '^ I am making my first essay in 
arms. In the tribune, as under fire, a defeat is 
as useful as a victory." Trials are rough 
teachers, but rugged schoolmasters make rug- 
ged pupils. In the height of his prosperity P. T. 
Barnum became involved in the Jerome Clock 
Company, which failed and swept away every 
cent he had. He was not the man to be discour- 
aged, however, for he had met and overcome 
too many difficulties to become disheartened. 
In a manly way he paid all his debts and began 
again, and made the experience of the past a 
stepping stone to much higher success. '^ Ad- 
versity is the prosperity of the great," and it is 
possible for us to make all our trials work out 
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
of glory. 

If we bear our business reverses improvingly 
we will doubtless bear them also patiently and 
uncomplainingly. "We can not think for a mo- 
ment of Paul whining over his losses. He had 
too manly a sense and character for that. John 
Bunyan was thrown into Bedford jail; but we 
do not see him sitting down to bemoan his lot 



80 aROWING TOWARD GOD 

and curse his persecutors. Instead, we see him 
determined not to lose a moment of his precious 
time just because he was in prison. Sitting 
down with two books as his library, the Bible 
and Fox's *^ Book of Martyrs, '^ he evolved the 
greatest allegory the world has ever seen — a 
volume that has made his name and fame im- 
mortal and will enrich the ages. 

Anaximander when told that the very boys 
laughed at his singing, manifested not the least 
impatience or resentment, but quietly re- 
marked: '* Then I must learn to sing better,'' 
and set about it with new determination. There 
is hope for all who bear their discouragements 
or business reverses in such a spirit of patience 
and good cheer. These very graces will prove 
of greatest value in the attainment of final suc- 
cess. 

And all our reverses should, of course, be 
borne with Christian faith and fortitude. God, 
our heavenly Father, knows what is best for us. 
He is infinitely wise and loving and good. We 
can well afford to trust him, even in the dark. 
He has promised to make all things work to- 
gether for our good, if we are among those who 



EEVEESES AND PEOSPERITY 81 

love him. If we are to be abased let us like 
Paul learn the art of knowing how to suffer 
want, and even make ourselves and the world 
the richer for it. 

But aside from knowing how to bear re- 
verses it may be fully or even more important 
to know just how we ought to bear prosperity. 
Paul said that he had learned another art, the 
art of knowing how to abound. If there is one 
thing the most of us serenely take for granted 
it is that we know how to abound. Yet Paul 
speaks very earnestly of it as something he had 
to learn, and also in a way to signify that the 
lesson is by no means an easy one. The fact 
is that most people meet the crisis of abase- 
ment a great deal better than they do that of 
prosperity. If Paul with his really few pos- 
sessions could speak of it as a serious question 
in his life how to keep himself under in the 
presence of prosperity, it is certainly a large 
part of wisdom for us who live in these times 
of unexampled abundance to ask ourselves 
whether we know how to live in them. It is not 
as easy a matter as some of us lightly suppose, 
this of knowing how to abound and not be in- 



82 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

jured by having abundance. The important 
question for us is not what wealth and social 
position and success and pleasure might do for 
us. The question is, as things are and our dis- 
positions are, what do they do for us I There 
are people to whom prosperity is a blessing. 
Eeleased from hardship and toil and narrol|i* 
circumstances they find their sympathies ex- 
panding and their nature flowering out into a 
profusion of kind thoughts and kind deeds. But 
this is not the usual way. The world never be- 
grudges wealth to those who thus know how to 
abound. But they are few who can thus bear 
prosperity. Most of fortunate and favored 
ones are seen to become narrowed and hard, 
dried up in their humanity and visibly degener- 
ated by so-called success. 

How, then, shall we bear prosperity? For 
one thing, we should bear it very watchfully, 
lest it insidiously encroach upon and dry up 
the stream of human kindness and chill the cur- 
rents of the soul. Then, too, we should bear it 
very humbly. The temptation to pride is so 
great that few people are made better by hav- 
ing all things and abounding. For the sake of 



EEVEKSES AND PROSPERITY 83 

suitable humility we may well bear in mind, too, 
that abounding in material things is not neces- 
sarily a sign of personal greatness or worth, or 
of the highest sort of success. There are some 
mighty mean men who make money. There are 
not a few of earth's noblest who, like Agassiz, 
*' have no time to make money.'' Each such an 
one could say, ' * ' I am doing a great work and 
cannot come down ' to the turning myself into 
a mere money-making machine." There is 
plenty of room for that honest introspection 
into our underlying motives in seeking wealth, 
our methods of getting it, the uses we are mak- 
ing of it, and, if all these are right, our lack of 
worthiness in God's sight above others who are 
denied it, which will lead us to bear the test of 
abounding with a very humble spirit. 

We ought, moreover, to bear prosperity very 
generously. Indeed, this is an indispensable 
requisite to knowing how to abound. When we 
'* freely receive," it is not alone a duty to God 
and to our fellows to '' freely give," but it is 
the only safety-valve to keep us from becoming 
surcharged with selfishness and greed. No 
man has a right to get too rich. Of course, no 



84 GEOWING TOWARD GOD 

one has a right to set the bounds for another 
as to just when he is becoming too rich; but 
when anyone finds himself getting rich he must 
for himself meet the problem as to how much 
he can rightly keep, and how much he must give 
to God and his fellows in order that in God's 
sight and men's sight he may be able truly to 
say with Paul, ' ^ I know how to abound. ' ' 

There are many other features in the prob- 
lem of knowing how to abound. We mention 
but one further. We ought always to make sure 
that we are bearing prosperity gratefully. By 
this we mean, with the humble and thankful 
recognition of God as the Giver of every good 
and perfect gift. No one should say that it is 
by his own great might or wisdom he has ob- 
tained his possessions, but by God's blessing 
on his efforts,— in case those efforts have been 
right and honest. But if at the bar of his own 
conscience and God's word any man sees that 
his efforts are not right and honest, then let him 
know that by all his wealth he is only piling up 
a curse against himself for the day when all 
secrets shall be revealed, a weight of accumu- 
lation that can only sink him into perdition. 



EEVEESES AND PEOSPEEITY 85 

If we could only see the full measure of risk 
and responsibility arising therefrom, probably 
few of us would be willing to assume the burden 
of becoming rich. There is no more difficult art 
for any one to learn than the art of knowing 
how to abound. The fact is that Paul thought 
of himself as abounding when he really had but 
very little as men count possessions in these 
days. An inventory of his belongings reveals 
little besides an old cloak and some parchments. 
His wealth was largely a wealth of content- 
ment. Indeed, this was one of the secrets into 
which he had been ' ' initiated. "He tells us so 
in the same connection: ^' I have learned in 
whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. ' ' 
He had * * learned ' ' it. Then it was not a thing 
natural to a restless and ambitious nature like 
his, but had to be attained in some way. He 
had *' learned '' it. Then it was not necessar- 
ily something that accompanied conversion and 
came without effort. No, when he says that he 
had * ^ learned " it he means that he had gotten 
into the secret of it. It was another of those 
secrets he had gotten into by his introduction 
into the '* mystery of godliness." The way he 



86 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

came to know how both to abound and how to 
be abased, how to live a life of Christian con- 
tentment in either circumstances, was that he 
had found out the fact and felt the experience 
of an indwelling Christ. He had learned how 
to be abased and how to abound because he had 
learned, as he himself says, that he ** could do 
all things through Christ who strengthened 
him." He had ^^ Christ within, the hope of 
glory," Christ in him, Christ for him, Christ 
with him, one with him forevermore. This, 
after all, was the apostle's real secret. It is 
the secret we all may learn,— that of living ** in 
the secret of His presence," of yielding our- 
selves to Christ, of finding our joy from Christ, 
of abiding in Christ. Then we too will be able to 
bear both adversity and prosperity, and to say 
with Paul: ^' Not that I speak in respect to 
want; for I have learned in whatsoever state I 
am, therein to be content. I know how to be 
abased, and I know also how to abound ; in every- 
thing and in all things have I learned the secret 
both to be filled and to be hungry, both to 
abound and to be in want. I can do all things 
through him that strengtheneth me." (R. V.) 



xni. 

OUR TEMPTATIONS AND THEIR CON- 
QUEST. 

Csesarius of Heisterboch relates tliat Philip, 
a great necromancer, once took a company of 
Swabian and Bavarian youths to a lonely place 
and entertained them, at their request, with his 
incantations. He drew a circle around them 
with his sword, and warned them not to leave 
it on any account. By his first incantation he 
surrounded them with armed men, who dared 
them to conflict, but none of them were lured 
forth. By his second incantation he sur- 
rounded them with a company of beautiful 
dancing damsels, who tried every power of at- 
traction upon them. A nymph, whose beauty 
exceeded all others, advanced to one of the 
young men and wrought with such effect upon 
him that he forgot the restriction and stretched 
forth his finger beyond the circle to receive the 
ring which she proffered. She at once seized 

87 



88 0EOWING TOWAED GOD 

him and drew him after her. It was not till 
after much trouble that the necromancer was 
able to recover him. Some one remarks, ^ * This 
circle is the rule of right and virtue. The 
armed men are pride, ambition, and passion. 
The charmers are intemperance, voluptuous- 
ness and sensuality. The only safety is within 
the circle. The first finger over the line and the 
whole body will follow to shame and ruin." 
Yes, if we yield to temptation even a little there 
is no telling where it will end. ^' When ruin 
starts it rushes ' ' ; our only safety is in keeping 
well within the line of right. 

Temptation is such a dangerous thing that 
we should be very careful to avoid all presump- 
tion toward it. We know a drinking man who 
professed conversion. He said to some friends 
that he proposed to prove the genuineness of 
his change of heart by going to the city and 
walking right past the saloons where before he 
had fallen so many times. You are not the 
least surprised to be told that when he went he 
fell again, and as deeply into sin as ever. He 
needed to pray, and take means to answer his 
own prayer, * * Lord keep back thy servant also 



OUR TEMPTATIONS 89 

from presumptuous sins. ' ' He needed to learn 
;wliat James meant when lie said, ^ ^ Count it all 
joy when ye fall into divers temptations." But 
it was '' fall into," lie said, not ^' run into." 
The result of testings that come in the line of 
duty may be good for us, but we are not to seek 
temptations, but wisely, cautiously avoid them. 
If a temptation can honorably be avoided it is 
far better to avoid it ; it is likely to save some 
life-time scars from the moral nature. 

There are two ways the ancients kept from 
yielding to the music and ultimate destruction 
of the sirens. One was that of Ulysses, who 
fortified himself with bands that held him fast 
to the mast while his boat carried him, listen- 
ing, by the tempting strains. The other was 
that of the Argonauts, who carried Orpheus 
with them in their boat, and were so engrossed 
in listening to his music that they never heard 
the sounds from the fatal shore. They bore 
through life no memory of the tempter 's allure- 
ments, as Ulysses did. The man who has the 
sweeter music in his soul and who keeps his 
mind and body so occupied with the better 
things that he has no time for unnecessary 



90 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

conflict with Satan, is going to be the greater 
power for good, and make highest development 
in the Christian life. So dangerous a thing is 
temptation that we should carefully avoid all 
compromises with it. Of two evils do not 
choose the least. Choose neither. Even very lit- 
tle sins may work great destruction. A pilot 
half a point wrong may place his ship directly 
on the rocks. The beginnings of sin are always 
small. Yet half a point from strict truthful- 
ness may strand us upon the ledge of falsehood. 
Half a point from perfect honesty and we are 
steering for the rocks of crime. 

How shall we know temptation when it 
comes 1 The answer is very plain. By compan- 
ionship with Christ. A young man of intem- 
perate habits was converted. A former asso- 
ciate met him and asked him into a saloon to 
have a drink. He said, '^ I cannot; I have a 
friend with me. ' ' * * Oh, that is all right ; bring 
your friend with you," said the man. '* No," 
said he, *' the Lord Jesus Christ is my friend, 
and he will not go into a saloon and does not 
wish me to go." This is the real test. Imagine 
Jesus with you, your Friend at your side, his 



OUR TEMPTATIONS 91 

eyes upon you — would you do the tiling! This 
is no imagination. It is reality. He is by our 
side. His eyes do see, his ears do hear, and 
his heart really cares. How shall we meet 
temptation when we know it 1 First, by quickly 
realizing our relationship with Christ, that his 
honor is wrapped up in us, that his confidence 
is fixed upon us ; also by wielding strongly the 
weapon of *^ all prayer," and drawing quickly 
the ^' sword of the Spirit," the Word of God. 
Pray as if all depended upon God. Fight as if 
all depended upon you. Keep face front. Ee- 
member, too, that Christ was tempted and is 
able to succor you from the grasp of Satan. 
Remember also that a swift attack is the best 
defence. Do not wait until evil has chosen a 
good position and fortified himself strongly in 
it. We need to crush temptation as soon as we 
see it. Take it by surprise. Give it no quarter. 
Do not dally with it one instant. 



xiy. 

LITTLE SINS. 

All God's commands are commands. All are 
important, and all alike should be obeyed. 
Christians can indulge in no so-called little sins 
and find favor with God, peace of conscience or 
safety of soul. 

What are some of the special dangers and 
evils in little sins? For one thing, little sins 
have in them an element of definite affront and 
disobedience to God. They are a violation of 
his holy law, and ' ' he that is guilty in one point 
is guilty of all." That is, he is a law breaker. 
It is also a fact that the authority of God seems 
to be more despised in the commission of small 
sins than in the yielding to great. For little 
sins have in them ordinarily less of temptation 
and therefore more of wilfulness. 

Then, too, little sins greatly deface the image 
of God in the soul. In a costly mirror a little 
flaw is a serious detraction. In a rare and cu- 

92 



LITTLE SINS 93 

rious picture a little scratch is a great deform- 
ity. 

Little sins also maintain the habit and course 
of sinning. Indulging in them sets the heart 
in the way of thinking less and less seriously of 
sin, and the tendency toward wrong doing be- 
comes more and more fixed. \ 

One winter's day, a gentleman standing by ' 
Niagara saw an eagle light upon a frozen lamb, 
encrusted in a floating cake of ice. The eagle 
fed upon the carcass as it was drifting toward 
the rapids. Every now and again the eagle 
would proudly lift his head into the air and 
look about him, as much as to say, ^ ^ I am drift- 
ing toward danger, but I know what I am 
doing; I will fly away and make my escape be- 
fore it is too late. ' ' Nearing the falls at length, 
he stooped and spread his powerful wings and 
leaped for his flight. But alas ! alas ! while he 
had been feasting on the dead carcass his feet 
had frozen to its fleece. He leaped and shrieked 
and beat upon the ice with his wings ; but use- 
lessly, for with the ice and frozen carcass the 
eagle went over the falls and down into the 
roar and darkness below. 



94 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

/ This is a picture of every soul that is play- 
Zing with and feasting upon sin. It matters not 
that the sins seem little sins; each indulgence 
or dalliance with evil helps to ^ upon one the 
habit and course of sinning. Many, sadly 
many, are the men and the women who have in- 
tended after a little more indulgence to turn 
from their sins and be saved; but having tar- 
ried until reaching what they began to think 
the danger point, attempting to turn, they have 
found themselves so absolutely fettered by sin- 
ful habits, their affections poisoned by sinful 
indulgence, their wills paralyzed by sinful in- 
decision, and their souls frozen fast upon the 
decaying mass of rottenness upon which they 
had been feasting. 

It is also sadly true that what little sins lack 
in weight they usually make up in number. A 
ship may have a heavy burden of sand as well 
as of great building blocks of granite, and may 
be as soon sunk with either. Smallest grains 
of sand will bury travellers in the desert. 
Finest flakes of snow gathering over the weary 
wayfarer will extinguish life, and if they drift, 
will bury whole houses and their dwellers. So, 



LITTLE SINS 95 

very little, delicate sins, as some people think 
them, will chill and benumb the soul and take 
away its life. Little sins accumulate, and may 
work the worst of evil by their very number. 

Little sins need special emphasis placed upon 
them also because of the extreme difficulty 
there is in convincing men of the great danger 
and evil there is in them. Dynamite is done up 
in very small packages, and the material looks 
very innocent and harmless ; but it is for these 
reasons the promiscuous handling of it needs 
to be guarded against so carefully. Some poi- 
sons look exactly like sugar, and in the fact that 
they do is one of their chief dangers. But both 
dynamite and poison have tremendous powers 
for evil. And so have little sins, in spite of the 
fact, indeed largely caused by the very fact, 
that by their seeming innocence it is so hard to 
convince people of the great danger and evil 
there is in them. 

One of the pre-eminent evils of little sins is 
that they so readily make way for greater sins. 
The devil by his seemingly little temptations 
nurses up youngling sins ; but they do not stay 
younglings. By and by they arrive at full 



96 &EOWING TOWAED GOD 

stature. There is an Indian story of a morsel 
of a dwarf who asked a king to give him all the 
ground he could cover with three strides. The 
king, seeing hun so small, said, '^ Certainly." 
Whereupon the dwarf suddenly shot up into a 
tremendous giant, covering all the land with 
the first stride, all the water with the second, 
and with the third he knocked the king down 
and took his throne. 

'' "Who is it knocks so loud! " '*A little lonely 

sin." 
* * Slip through, ' ' we answer — and all hell is in ! 

If Satan prevails with us to go with him one 
step out of the way we are in danger of making 
no stop short of the height of wickedness. He 
will make us take a second step and a third and 
so on, all the way to destruction. Each step is 
but one step ; the last step in sin is but one step, 
as well as the first ; so if Satan can prevail with 
us to take one step, why should he not prevail 
with us to take the last step as well as the first 
step, seeing that it is but onef Your second 
sin no more exceeds your first than your first 
does your duty, and so on to the end. It is but 
one step at a time. 



LITTLE SINS 97 

It is said that a man one day strolling along 
in the country happened to see a magnificent 
golden eagle flying slowly upward toward the 
sky. He watched it with delight and admira- 
tion as it so strongly mounted upward. But 
presently he saw that something was wrong 
with it. It seemed unable to go any higher. 
Soon it began to fall, and presently it lay at his 
feet a lifeless mass. What could be the matter? 
No human hand had harmed it. He went and 
examined the bird; and what did he find? It 
had carried up with it a little weasel in its 
talons, and as it had drawn its talons near to its 
body for flight, the little creature had wormed 
itself partly out of the talons and had drunk 
the life-blood from the eagle's breast. 

How like this it is with a little sin. It may 
appear a very trivial thing that one is at first 
tempted to do, but presently it fastens itself 
upon the soul and works speedy death and de- 
struction. 

How must little sins be dealt with! Not ten- 
derly; not connivingly; but they must be 
' ' taken. ' ' We must take them or they will take 
us. They are *' the little foxes that spoil the 



98 ffEOWING TOWAED GOD 

vines.'' We must watch against and pray 
against even the smallest of sins, or by and by 
we will be overcome of sin and fall into utter 
spiritual ruin. Look out for the little foxes 
that spoil the vines. Make no place in your life 
for so-called minor evils. Cherish a tender con- 
science as the very apple of your eye. Keep 
alive reverent and devout thoughts of God and 
alert recognition of his law, and don't forget 
your absolute need of Christ as your helper, 
guide and defence every moment of life. 



XV. 
SPIRITUAL LONESOMENESS. 

A company in a Christian home had been 
spending the evening in spiritual conversation. 
Something was said about the '' blessed real- 
ity " of God's presence with his people, of the 
comfort and strength that come from commun- 
ion with him, and upon other themes kindred to 
these. It was in the country, and among the 
company was a minister who was on his vaca- 
tion, and with him a devoted young daughter of 
about sixteen years. By and by most of the 
family and of the guests had retired, among 
them being this dear young girl, the daughter 
of the minister. But a few lingered down stairs 
until a late hour, talking of things concerning 
the kingdom and in communion about spiritual 
matters. The second company finally broke up 
and all went their ways to their bedchambers. 
But as he passed the door of the room in which 
his daughter was, as he supposed, sleeping, her 

99 

L.ofG. 



100 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

father heard some smothered sobs coming from 
the room. Pausing for a moment, he heard her 
call, ^^ Oh, papa, please come in and see me!" 
Upon entering the room he was surprised to find 
his daughter, usually so happy, sobbing bitterly 
on her pillow. ^ ' Oh, papa, I am so lonesome, ' ' 
she exclaimed. Supposing the lonesomeness 
arose from the fact that they were away from 
home, and she separated from her usual com- 
panions, some words of comfort and cheer were 
spoken with that thought in view. To this mis- 
directed ministry the girl exclaimed, ** No, no, 
papa, that is not it; I am very happy here 
among our kind friends, but I am so lonesome 
for God. He seems so far away from me, and 
I can't find him anywhere, and I have tried so 
hard to have communion with him. It seems 
like I am just a formal Christian and not a real 
one at all, or God would not be so far away 
from me, and I would not be so lonesome all the 
time for him in my heart. It has been so long 
that I have waited for him to come to me since 
I gave myself to him, and he does not come to 
me. Oh, do pray for me, papa, and help me to 
find God!'' 



SPIRITUAL LONESOMENESS 101 

Thus this little Christian cried out in her bit- 
ter heart-lone someness for God. Yet how 
deeply some of us can sympathize with her, and 
her spiritual desolation. David was not a little 
child, he was a grown, strong, intellectual man, 
yet he exclaimed in spiritual homesickness: 
'' My heart and my flesh crieth out for the liv- 
ing God." 

You have had that feeling, and so have L 
Well do I remember a time, after months and 
months of longing, when out under the stars 
and the wide spreading branches of a tree, I 
opened my boyish heart to my own dear father, 
and how, putting his arms about my shoulders 
he told me how glad he was that I had yielded 
to this longing after God. 

But this longing comes a great many times in 
life, and is not confined to any first experience 
as a Christian. It is not more pleasant than 
the pangs of hunger or the cravings of thirst; 
yet it is something for which we cannot be too 
thankful. For one reason because it is the sign 
of a most blessed fact, namely, of the posses- 
sion of a heaven-born nature. It tells of the 
divinity within us. When God breathed into 



102 GEOWING TOWARD GOD 

man the breath of life he became a living sonl — 
a living, longing, aspiring soul. '* Onr soul," 
says Augustine, '' was created by God, so for 
God, and is therefore never quiet until it rests 
in God." Since the fall there have been two 
natures in man, each constantly striving for the 
mastery. * ' The flesh lusteth against the Spirit 
and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are 
contrary one to the other. ' ' We have within us 
the Spirit of Christ, the image of God, causing 
us continually to aspire ; while the old Adam in 
us ever drags us downward. Our body looks 
down and searches the ground for its delights. 
The soul looks up among the stars and beyond. 
The body lives in the world, with the world and 
for the world. The soul, like a bird caged from 
its native forest, yearns for liberty and that life 
for which it was meant by the Creator. 

Every season of soul yearning is also the sign 
of a blessed condition. '^ Blessed are they 
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
for they shall be filled. ' ' Their longing shall be 
realized. Their hunger shall be fed. Their 
thirst shall be satisfied. It is a condition in 
which a great blessing is near at hand. The 



SPIRITUAL LONESOMENESS 103 

old divines used to speak of the experiences of 
the '' fullness of God's presence." And the 
words referred to a reality possible to every 
Christian. One speaks of God's gracious in- 
filling '* until I had to call upon God to stay 
the flood. I had enough; I thought I could not 
contain more and live." 

What is the reason there is not more of such 
experience in these days? One is because we 
do not allow ourselves enough time in religion. 
We live in such a hurry that we are '* jostled 
out of our spirituality." We allow ourselves 
almost no time for devotional study of the 
Bible, or for prayer, or for spiritual meditation. 

Let us prize every impulse of spiritual long- 
ing, every yearning for God, for it is the sign of 
a blessed condition in which we may enjoy him 
to the full. In other words, we are in reach of 
a very happy experience. 

HaviQg this longing it is of the utmost im- 
portance that you shall yield to it. It is not a 
forcing the door of the heart, but a call to priv- 
ilege. '* My heart and my flesh crieth out for 
the living God." At every such season God's 
response is : *' Behold, I stand at the door and 



104 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

knock ; if any man will hear my voice, and open 
the door, I will come in to him, and will sup 
with him, and he with me. ' ' In Holman Hunt 's 
meaningful picture illustrating this verse the 
door at which Christ stands and waits is made 
knobless. It teaches this same lesson — the im- 
portance of our yielding. Our spiritual home- 
sickness is in fact God's knock. He is at the 
door of our heart. He has come to see us. 
Your heart and your flesh cry out for the living 
God! It is a sign of a blessed nature, akin to 
God. It is the sign of a blessed condition,— in 
reach of a happy experience. It is the sign of 
a pressing duty upon you,— of yielding to 
God's gentle knock at the door of your heart. 
Open the door, and he will come in and satisfy 
your longing. 



XVI. 

THE GRACE OF BEING TENDER- 
HEARTED. 

We are not naturally tender-hearted. TMs 
may be due to the struggle of tlie race upwards 
from lower levels of life. In the pushing of the 
weak to the wall and the success of the strong- 
est there is much that is cruel and tending to 
eliminate tender-heartedness from the category 
of human virtues. At all events it is certain 
that the struggle of life as we see it every day 
has a strong tendency to form in us and en- 
courage traits the very opposite of tenderness. 
The awful competition of business life in these 
days is anything but encouraging to the grace 
of tenderness. The hot struggle that goes on 
in social life, though covered with the courtesies 
of education and refined manners, often brings 
about an awful refinement of cruelty in the 
treatment people give each other. The hurry, 
the pressure, the weariness of hard work, for 

105 



106 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

those who must labor with their hands, act as a 
foe to tenderness of heart in the lives of men 
and women. These reasons only press npon us 
all the more strongly the duty of cultivating the 
grace of being tender-hearted. 

We ought to be moved to this, for one thing, 
by the great example we have of tenderness in 
God. Tenderness is one of the attributes of our 
Heavenly Father. How often occur in the 
Bible such expressions as, *' the tender mercy 
of God," ** the tender mercies of our God,'' etc. 
There is among men such a thing as mercy with- 
out its being tender; just as there is kindness 
without its being loving kindness. Some people 
bestow kindness so roughly that it is scarcely 
kindness at all. We have known a man to 
send help to a poor relative with great regular- 
ity, but it was always accompanied with such 
harsh and hurting words that his could never 
be called loving kindness. But God's kindness 
is loving kindness, and (rod's mercy is tender 
mercy. One of the features that marked the 
pathway of Christ when in the world was his 
great tenderness in his treatment of all,— the 
widows, the children, the suffering, the sick, the 



TENDEE-HEAETEDNESS 107 

siniimg — how tender he was toward them all ! 

Tenderness is not weakness. Some seem to 
think that it is a sign that they are weak if they 
manifest tenderness. On the contrary it im- 
plies the possession of strength. Not necessa- 
rily physical strength, but it implies self-posses- 
sion, a collected mind, self-command, moral 
strength. It is the stronger bending to lift the 
weak. For tenderness is an active, not a pas- 
sive trait. It is not the indolent sentimentality 
that weeps over novels and sympathizes with 
imaginary woes. It is something that serves, 
that does something to relieve actual need. It 
is the Good Samaritan actually pouring the oil 
and the wine into the wounds and helping the 
fallen to their feet. Neither is tenderness a 
sort of enthusiastic folly, helping indiscrim- 
inately and falling in with unwise forms of 
manifesting sympathy. There is a good deal 
more of tenderness in giving sensible help than 
in the mere emotional, thoughtless, indiscrim- 
inate giving such as is done by many who think 
they are making themselves most commendable 
for their goodness of heart and charity. 

It is our duty to be tender-hearted. We 



108 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

should be tender-hearted toward God. Some 
might think of tender-heartedness as a grace 
to be manifested exclusively toward our fellow 
men. ** Past feeling," is a condition the Bible 
tells us people get into in their treatment of 
God. There is no more hardened condition of 
heart one can get into than to become wanting 
in susceptibility to divine influences. How 
many there are who are actually heedless of 
and unmoved by the story of the Cross! 
Nothing could mark them as more lacking in 
the grace of tenderness of heart. No one is 
tender-hearted who is not tender toward God. 

We ought also to be tender-hearted toward 
our fellowmen. Not alone to the sick, the 
feeble, the poor, the aged; we ought to be very 
tender toward all of these, but we owe more of 
general tenderness than we usually manifest 
toward those who are on equal footing with our- 
selves. All human souls are sensitive ; all have 
their troubles; all are in need of human help 
and cheer. Let us recognize our duty to be 
tender toward all our brother men. 

We ought to be tender, too, toward the ani- 
mal creation. There is room for great improve- 



TENDER-HEAETEDNESS 109 

ment here, even among people who will not 
strike a dog, beat a horse, starve a cat, or 
neglect a wounded bird. Do we always con- 
sider the weariness and pain of our horses 
when we make them hold up their heads in one 
constrained position by a tight check rein? Men 
and women who would be insulted if told they 
are not tender-hearted are going up and down 
our country roads and city streets every day 
practicing this form of cruelty. How many 
women there are who need to cultivate this 
grace of tenderness enough to prevent the most 
cruel slaughter of millions of God's creatures, 
the beautiful birds, and the causing of other 
millions of little nestlings to starve, by the 
killing of the parent birds, while the wearers 
advertise their shame by setting up the dead 
bodies as so-called *' ornaments " on their 
hats. Tenderness of heart is a choice grace, 
one through which we commend both ourselves 
and the Saviour we serve by its careful cultiva- 
tion. Let us be watchful against all hardness 
of heart. Let us cultivate the beautiful grace 
of tenderness of heart. 



XVII. 

THE MAEKS OF THE LOED JESUS. 

In early life we were acquainted with a man 
who was anything but fair to look upon. He 
was crippled, so that he could walk only with 
unsteady step. There was upon his face a look 
as if he were in constant pain and weakness, 
and his features were disfigured also with scars. 
But these blights and scars were for him the 
insignia of the noblest honor. He had been a 
soldier, in the Army of the Potomac. In a 
gallant charge he had greatly distinguished 
himself; but he received wounds from which 
he never recovered. He never knew a well day 
again. He must henceforth bear the marks of 
that heroism. He was not ashamed, but proud 
of them. He knew they were brands of honor. 
He could well have said, in the very spirit of 
Paul, the Apostle, '* Henceforth let no man 
trouble me, question my loyalty to duty; for I 

110 



MARKS OF THE LOED JESUS 111 

bear in my body the unextinguisliable marks, 
the very brands of my fidelity." 

The Apostle Paul was a much scarred man. 
His body was branded with marks he must carry 
to his dying day. He had also other wounds, 
wounds of the spirit, deep and sore. He had 
had trouble on every side and of almost every 
kind, and the reference he had to these 
'' marks " was as if he had said: '' From this 
time on for the remainder of my life, let no man 
trouble me." Look at me! Behold these 
brands of scars, the wrinkles of care and weari- 
ness on my face, the welts made by the Eoman 
lictor's rods, with which I was thrice beaten, 
the red lines of those nearly two hundred stripes 
laid upon me by the Jews, the scars left by the 
stones which bruised and beat me down until 
I was left for dead ; whence did these come but 
from my battlings for Jesus 1 Call them slave- 
brands if you will, but I glory in being thus 
branded as the slave of Christ. Henceforth let 
no man trouble me ; for I bear in my body the 
brands of the Lord Jesus ; I am scarred all over 
with the plainest evidences of my loyalty to 
him. 



112 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

There are marks or brands of some sort which 
every one who is devoted to Christ must carry. 
Christians are not now subjected to such stripes 
and scourgings as Paul had to endure. At the 
same time, the period has not come yet when we 
can be * ^ carried to the skies on flowery beds of 
ease." The being a Christian requires no lit- 
tle conflict with evil, no little self-denial, and 
must yield some marks of our attachment to the 
Lord. There must be a difference between 
those who are Christians and those who are not, 
and men ought to be able to see the difference. 
By a holy life; by self-denial; by subdued ani- 
mal affections; by zeal in the cause of truth; 
by an imitation of the Lord Jesus ; and by the 
marks of suffering in our body, if need be, we 
should have evidences that we are Christ's — 
some slave-brands or wound-scars indicating 
that we belong to the Son of God. As some one 
has said, ^ ' Nowhere is a Christian anything but 
a Christian." If that be true, and it is true, 
then there must always be some marks of differ- 
ences of life and choice and affection which will 
make the fact of being a Christian evident. 

We bear each in his body the brand of the 



MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS 113 

master we serve. The horny hand of the la- 
borer bespeaks him the slave of unceasing toil. 
The dinted brow of the merchant tells how his 
ledgers, his gain and loss, his balances — that 
old master, business, has him under subjection. 
The thoughtful features of the student reveal 
his servitude to a higher master, the love of 
knowledge and truth. Sin, too, brands itself 
on the body. Sottishness and sensuality, sel- 
fish indulgence of appetites and passions leave 
their marks in disfigurements which betoken no 
honorable servitude. But if the life be given 
to God's service, if the soul be filled with love 
to Christ and brought under subjection to his 
will, if his Spirit pervade our spirit and we be 
intent on the fulfillment of his gracious pur- 
poses toward ourselves and toward all mankind, 
then there will scarcely fail to be some outward 
signs of that, too, so that even the careless ob- 
server would become aware of the purity of the 
soul within, of the Master who rules the life, 
and of the peace and joy and blessedness that 
come in serving him. Being a Christian should 
show even in the face. 

The marks of the Lord Jesus will be seen also 



114 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

as brands of service. A slave once carried a 
written message in punctures on the skin of his 
head, which had first been shaved bare to re- 
ceive the writing. When his hair had grown 
so as to hide the writing he went unsuspected; 
and the person to whom the message was sent, 
having shaved the letter carrier's head, read 
the message. So completely as this should we 
be at our Master's disposal and ready to ac- 
cept the brands of his service. The brands 
Paul spoke of were slave-brands. He delighted 
to write himself down as the bond-servant of 
Christ. Now, the very essence of slavery is to 
have no will of our own, to be the possession, 
the property, of another; to enjoy nothing, to 
have nothing, to do nothing, to be nothing save 
at the beck or command or will of another. This 
is a dreadful state to be in if that other one be 
a man like myself. But suppose my master be 
my King, my Creator, my dear Eedeemer and 
Lord, how exalted I am to become the servant 
of such an one! 

The marks of the Lord Jesus Christ being 
scars of battle will therefore be greatly to our 
honor. How often has an old soldier shown his 



MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS 115 

scars with pride and exultation as a proof of 
his attachment to his country! As some one 
has said, ^^ It is not gold, precious stones, 
statues, that adorn a soldier, but a torn buckler, 
a cracked hemlet, a blunt sword, a scarred 
face." ** I prize this wound," said Lafayette, 
when struck in the foot by a musket ball at Ger- 
mantown, ** as among the most valuable of my 
honors. ' ' So Paul felt in regard to the wounds 
he had received in the cause of the Lord Jesus. 
They were his boast and his glory, the pledge 
that he had been engaged in the cause of the 
Saviour, and therefore a passport to all who 
acknowledge themselves as lovers of his Lord. 
Let us not forget that we must expect to have 
scars as the result of the Christian conflict. It 
is not dress-parade, it is war, and we must ex- 
pect to fight; and if we fight, we must expect 
to get wounds. He who has no ^^ marks " must 
be an extremely poor, inefficient and cowardly 
Christian. A day is coming when all ' ' marks ' ' 
gotten in the service of Christ will be honorable 
and receive the rewards of our Lord's recog- 
nition. 



XVIII. 

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LEADERSHIP. 

Peter was a born leader. He was impulsive, 
but strong and always influential. The days 
immediately following Christ's crucifixion were 
very disheartening. The Lord, upon whom his 
hopes had been fixed, was crucified, dead and 
buried. It was hard to keep up hope. Doubt 
had begun to invade the minds of all the dis- 
ciples. We picture them out on the shore of the 
lake. One says, ** Why does not our Lord come 
to us as he told us he would T' Another says, 
'' How long it is since our Lord went away!'' 
A third says, *' Will he ever return again, after 
all ? " A boat is just starting out for the night 's 
fishing. One of the seven, of whom five had 
been fishermen, remarks, ** How beautiful the 
water looks this evening!" Then it is that 
Simon Peter takes his, as ever, impulsive part, 
and says, *^ I go a fishing." The break has 
been made, and at once the others yield to the 

116 



EESPONSIBILITY OF LEADERSHIP 117 

drift, and say, ^^ We also go with thee/' We 
are not surprised now to read a moment later 
in the account, *' They went forth." That is 
the way it always goes. When there is an * ' I " 
man there will always he a ** we " man, and 
when there is an '* I " man and a '* we " man 
there will soon be '* they " men. " They went 
forth." First a leader astray; then followers 
with him; then sure evil to result. '^ They 
went. ' ' 

There is a very important lesson in this as to 
the *^ I " man's evil influence. *^ I go a fish- 
ing." *' We also go with thee." When there 
is one young man or young woman or older man 
or older woman to say, ** I go," to any wrong 
place, there will be others to go along. And 
they will encourage one another in evil until 
mischief is done, and you read, '^ They went." 
No one can over-emphasize this influence and 
responsibility of leadership. There is great so- 
cial power in wrong doing. ' ' None of us liveth 
to himself." We are moved and swayed irre- 
sistibly by each other. Sin loves companion- 
ship. Peter did not want to go a fishing alone. 
Few ever do. Half the drunkards of to-day 



118 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

owe their condition to the unnecessary tipples 
they took when some comrade invited them. 
The story of a large proportion of all the down- 
falls we see to-day could be written in the words 
of this conversation we are studying: ** I 
go — and we go with thee. ' ' Well we need the 
warning to follow not a multitude to do evil. 

Because of this social power of wrong doing 
we see, moreover, the multiplied responsibility 
of the leader in wrong. ' ' When ruin starts it 
rushes," but great is the responsibility of the 
one who starts it. Peter's sudden impulse was 
very contagious. As by one inspiration they 
all say, ** We go along," giving a most notable 
instance of the power of unconscious influence 
to evil which a strong man exerts over those 
around him who may be in any degree careless 
or listless or inclined to self-indulgence. 

It would not be proper to speak of this act of 
Peter's as an act of the worst sort of evil, for 
what he did was comparatively innocent. But 
it is true for us to assert that the most awful 
sort of condemnation is the condemnation that 
awaits those who having the influence and re- 
sponsibility of leadership use their powers and 



EESPONSIBILITY OF LEADERSHIP 119 

opportunities to lead others astray. The old 
mad man of Sicily threw himself headlong into 
the crater of ^tna, and men worshiped him as 
a god. But, think you, had he folded in his 
arms a little child as he took that awful plunge, 
would not men have execrated him as a devil? 
That is what men strong in wickedness are ever 
doing — taking others with them in their 
plunge! ** Oh, if my influence could only be 
gathered up and buried with me!" exclaimed a 
dying man whose life had been most poorly 
spent. But that could not be. His influence 
still lives and goes on blighting other lives. 
The evil men do lives after them, and this fact 
adds a fearful weight to their responsibility 
and condemnation for doing evil. This is the 
deep meaning of the message of our divine Re- 
deemer when he uttered those sad but signifi- 
cant words: '' Whosoever, therefore, shall 
break one of these least commandments, and 
shall teach men so, he shall be called the least 
in the kingdom of heaven." 

But there is another and happier side to this 
fact of the ** I " man's influence: we refer to 
his large possible influence for good. When he 



120 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

says ** I go," to any place of benefit or blessing, 
then, too, there will be others to say, '' We go 
with thee"; and good will result, and it can 
then most happily be said, ** They went." We 
see therefore that there is this same social 
power in well-doing as in evil doing. No young 
man or yonng woman says, I go to church, or 
to Sunday School, or to prayer meeting, or upon 
some mission of mercy, but what there will be 
some one else to say, ^* I go with thee." And 
others still are likely to join them, until the 
result of the united good they accomplish will 
be written in a triumphant, '^ They went." 
Companionship in the good, its likelihood, its 
desirability, its large results, these are themes 
upon which every Christian well might medi- 
tate. 

In this fact of the social power of well doing 
lies the multiplied opportunities of each well- 
doer. *' When good starts it rushes." There 
is a contagion in well doing even stronger than 
there is in ill doing. We know a young man 
who alone took a stand for Christ by uniting 
with the Church. At the next communion a 
score of his companions took the same step. 



RESPONSIBILITY OF LEADEESHIP 121 

We know a church where worldliness had got- 
ten a strong hold, and there had been almost no 
conversions in years. A devoted Christian 
minister was called as pastor. At the first com- 
munion twelve young ladies took a stand for 
Christ. The ice was broken, and inside of a 
little less than two years upwards of two hun- 
dred persons, and in a small country district, 
had joined that church, more than doubling its 
membership. Good grows, and each well-doer 
has a multiplied opportunity. 

Consider also the *^ I " man's glorious re- 
ward. It is not only that of being saved, but it 
is that of not being saved alone. If it is a joy 
for the shipwrecked mariner to escape from the 
waves and stand on the shore saved, how much 
greater, then, must be his joy when by his side 
he is permitted to see other men, and maybe 
women and children, too, who by his exertions 
he has been able to save. '' He that winneth 
souls is wise. " * ' They that be wise shall shine 
as the brightness of the firmament, and they 
that turn many to righteousness as the stars 
forever and ever." 



XIX. 

SIN A SELF INJURY. 

Sin has been defined as any want of con- 
formity nnto or transgression of the law of God. 
It is an evil done against God, of which we 
should repent and for which we need forgive- 
ness through the atoning blood of Christ. The 
great evil of sin is that it transgresses God's 
wish and loving will toward us, promotes dis- 
cord and rebellion in his universe, and puts us 
under liability to the punishment due for our 
offences. But there is another side to sin's 
consequences, of which we do not make so much 
account as we ought. It is of slight importance 
as compared with the fact of sin's being an 
offence against God; but sin is also an offence 
against ourselves — against our own present 
well-being. In sinning against God we wrong 
him, but we wrong also our own souls. God's 
law is but God's love speaking in the imperative 
mood. God is not to be regarded as some 

122 



SIN A SELF INJUEY 123 

mighty police justice, detecting the law break- 
ers and with whips and fines and imprisonments 
punishing the guilty. Neither does he commis- 
sion Satan, as some in a most mistaken way 
think, to be his jailor, with special appointment 
to torment the wicked. God does not turn over 
the execution of his decrees to wicked spirits, 
nor does the Bible anywhere countenance such 
an idea. At the same time we are to bear in 
mind that God is just, as well as loving, and will 
by no means clear the guilty. 

Yet God's laws are beneficent in their pur- 
pose. They are intending to help and to bless. 
But they are not to be violated with impunity. 
The law of gravitation is a beneficent law in 
nature, but he that sinneth against it does it to 
his own hurt. So it is in the spiritual realm. 
Sin is self -hurt. '^ He that sinneth against me 
wrongeth his own soul." Not in the spirit of 
haughty denunciation, but with sad and kindly 
warning the Bible declares that he who trans- 
gresses God's spiritual laws wrongs his own 
soul, is the author of his own sorrow and suf- 
fering and loss. God desires only our salva- 
tion. He says: '^ Turn ye, turn ye, for why 



124 jaEOWINO TOWAED ©OD 

will ye die r ' It is not tlie will of God that any 
should perish, but that all should turn unto him 
and live. But God will not lower us to the level 
of a stone or a; stick, without will or choice. 
He will not force us to be good by an omnipotent 
act ; for then we could enjoy no reward for be- 
ing good or doing good. He gives motives and 
persuasions and helps, loving wooings and 
equally loving warnings, but leaves us free. 
This is how it comes that he that sinneth against 
God wrongeth his own soul. 

Man is therefore capable of sinning. As some 
one has well said: ^^ It is our glory that we 
can sin; it is our disgrace and ruin that we do/' 
The capability of sinning distinguishes us from 
the brute and belongs to all moral beings. The 
highest angel in heaven has it, or there would 
be no virtue in his obedience. A good deal that 
is of highest honor to us is implied when it is 
said that we are capable of sinning, — three 
things at least; that we have knowledge of the 
moral law, that we have a capacity to obey that 
law, or at least power to get the help we need to 
enable us to obey it, and that we have perfect 
freedom of choice. 



SIN A SELF INJUEY 125 

Sin is something directed against God. ' ^ He 
tliat sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. ' ' 
All the laws of man's being, physical, organic, 
intellectual and moral, are God's laws, and vio- 
lation of them is sin against Heaven. God has 
great ambitions for us. He would build within 
us noble character. When we sin we defeat his 
wish and make our characters ignoble and low. 
God would have us useful to others ; but sin 
makes us hurtful to them. God would have us 
happy ; but sin makes us wretched, utterly and 
forever. God would have us grow in spiritual 
beauty, symmetry and power ; but sin deforms, 
enfeebles and mars our being. Sin is therefore 
always against God and his desires for us. 

Sin against God is a wrong done to our own 
nature. It is self -injury. It is a sort of moral 
suicide. * ^ He that sinneth against me wrongeth 
his own soul." He violates the law of his 
soul's well being. 

The law of the piano is that its strings shall 
be tuned in harmony and struck with light, 
cushioned hammers ; but if you fail to tune the 
strings at all, and strike them with an iron 
sledge, you get only discord and destruction. 



126 GROWINGl TOWARD GOD 

Tlie reason is that you Have sinned against the 
law of the piano. 

The law of the circulation of the blood is from 
heart to artery, capillary, and back again by the 
veins; and as it goes it repairs waste, carries 
off useless matter, and gives health and 
strength. But if you open an artery and send 
the blood outside its course, you die. Tou have 
transgressed the law of the circulation of the 
blood. How sinful, how self-destructive, then, 
is the violation of law, and how fatally does he 
who thus sins wrong his own soul! 

That sin injures the soul admits of no debate. 
It is a patent fact written on every page of his- 
tory, and universally proclaimed by the deep 
consciousness of humanity. By deadening our 
moral susceptibilities, by disturbing our peace, 
by warping our judgment, by enfeebling our 
powers, by clouding our hopes, and in a great 
many other ways, whenever we indulge in sin 
we work upon ourselves a great hurt, a great 
self-injury. 

This should lead us to notice, therefore, that 
sin is an unnatural thing. A state of sin is not 
the normal state of any being. We wrong our 



SIN A SELF INJURY 127 

souls not by keeping, but by breaking God's 
laws. Obedience to them is happiness. The 
voice of all the Divine prohibitions is, ^^ Do 
thyself no harm." Sin is an unnatural self- 
hurt, a suicidal self -harm. In sinning, 

" We rave, we wrestle with great Nature's 
plan; 
We thwart the Deity; and 'tis decreed, 
Who thwart His will shall contradict their 



It is further implied that God's laws, being 
written on our nature, the penalties for their 
violation are beyond the power of man's eva- 
sion. A man may break the laws of his country 
and yet may be able to avoid the penalty. He 
may not be detected, or he may flee to foreign 
lands. The reason is that the law that he has 
violated may be arbitrary — not written in his 
nature. But this cannot be in the case of the 
violation of God's laws; for they carry with 
them their own penalties, right home into the 
constitution of the transgressor. He must flee 
from himself before he can flee from them. 

A life of sin is therefore a life of folly, for it 
must ever be a life of misery. Sin is folly, and 



128 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

the greatest sinner, whatever his talents or ap- 
parent gains, is the greatest fool. 

All God's warnings against sin and wooings 
from sin are love prompted. They are intended 
to deter iis from self-injury and call us toward 
the highest good. 



EATING HONEY BY THE WAY. 

There were three kinds of honey commonly 
known in Palestine: that which was made by 
bees, that which was distilled from the trees, 
and that which was made from grape juice, 
which was largely exported. The kind that 
Jonathan ate when it is said of him in the first 
book of Samuel, '^ He put forth the end of the 
rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in a 
honeycomb, and he put his hand to his mouth; 
and his eyes were enlightened," was doubtless 
the product of the honey-bee. Palestine was 
known as a land '^ flowing with milk and 
honey. ' ' We have read that in one of our East- 
ern States there is a crag in the hills where, in 
a cleft in the rocks, great masses of honey hang, 
stored up by the labors of busy bees for years, 
yet absolutely inaccessible. Many attempts 
have been made to reach and appropriate the 
honey, but in vain. Just so wild bees in Pales- 

129 



130 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

tine settled in trees and in the clefts of rocks, 
and deposited their honey. 

Saul had foolishly pronounced a curse on 
any who should partake of any food before 
evening — the evening of the day of the great 
battle when the Philistines were smitten from 
Michmash to Aijalon. Jonathan, faint with 
hunger, and not knowing of the curse, dipped 
the end of his rod in a luscious honeycomb and 
ate, and straightway was strengthened ; that is, 
his bodily powers were refreshed by the food. 
Weary with his chase after the Philistines a 
little needed nourishment made a new man of 
him physically. 

Without discussing Jonathan's act as related 
to his father's foolish oath, of which he knew 
nothing, we think this incident of the long ago 
may serve well to impress upon us the fact of 
our need, as Christians, of frequently reviving 
our strength and vigor and hope as we press 
along through life, using for this purpose such 
wayside blessings as God puts within our reach 
as we journey or as we fight. Life is a battle, 
and we, like Jonathan, must be actively engaged. 
As a result we are sure at times to faint and 



EATING HONEY BY THE WAY 131 

grow weary; but let us not forget that God 
provides honey by the way for our refreshment, 
and that it is our privilege to eat of it. 

There is, for example, the honey of God's 
word. The provision is abundant, as was the 
Eoney in wild profusion in the woods which 
Jonathan entered. The honey of which Jona- 
than partook had a marvellous effect upon him ; 
'' it enlightened his eyes." That is, it so 
strengthened his body that the faintness which 
produced dimness of vision disappeared. This 
honey of his word which God gives us, is sweet 
to the taste; it gives strength; and, above all, 
it has a blessed enlightening power. The Word 
of God enlightens the mind. The Bible has 
well been called * ' the common people 's Univer- 
sity." It enlightens the moral sense, the con- 
science, and makes it like a corrected mariner's 
compass, pointing always in the right direc- 
tion. It enlightens the eye that has grown dim 
through sorrow. Best of all, it reveals the sin- 
ner's Saviour and the way to eternal life 
through him. Let us eat of this honey by the 
way. It may be impossible for all of us to learn 
Latin and Greek and Hebrew and become deep 



132 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

students of God's Word. The battle may go 
too hard with us for that — we must live in such 
a hurry; our daily bread must be earned; our 
families must be eared for — but God does put 
much of this honey within our reach. Let us, 
like Jonathan, '* put our hand to our mouth," 
and eat of the honey by the way. 

He puts within our reach, also, the honey of 
prayer. And how sweet and refreshing it is, 
as we hurry along the dusty highway of life! 
We may not be able to shut ourselves up like 
monks in a cloister, and spend the whole of our 
days in prayer; it would not be a good thing 
for ourselves or for the Kingdom's advance- 
ment if we could. But we can eat some honey 
by the way. We can at least find time for a few 
minutes on our knees before God morning and 
evening, and, ' ^ an upward glancing of the eye ' ' 
from time to time during the day. As in the 
case of God's Word, this, too, is sweet; it gives 
strength; and it has a very blessed enlighten- 
ing power. Do not fail to eat of this precious 
honey by the way. 

Then, too, there is spiritual meditation. We 
can always '' think on these things." No mat- 



EATING HONEY BY THE WAY 133 

ter how hard the battle presses or how busy we 
must be, there is always within our reach some 
of this sweet honey of spiritual meditation — of 
communion with our Heavenly Father and with 
our Elder Brother, Christ. Even while in rapid 
motion we can out with the end of our rod, 
dip it in the honeycomb and eat a little. '* My 
meditation of him shall be sweet." It is not only 
sweet, but this too, like the study of the Bible 
and prayer, has both a strengthening and an 
enlightening power. 

Yet again, there is Christian conversation. 
Here is honey of which Christians too seldom 
partake. It would please God and help us much 
if we partook more of it. There was a time in 
Old Testament history, when ** they that feared 
the Lord spake often one to another; and the 
Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of re- 
membrance was written before him for them 
that feared the Lord and that thought upon his 
name." So thoroughly did he approve of their 
mutual converse about himself that he says: 
*' And they shall be mine in that day when I 
make up my jewels." 

There are many other ways in which we can 



134 GEOWING TOWARD GOD 

get tastes of God's sweet, strength-giving honey 
by the way; but we will mention but one fur- 
ther, namely : through the services of his house. 
The Sabbath brings a pause when we may get 
this refreshment and new strength. " They 
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 
strength; they shall mount up with wings as 
eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they 
shall walk and not faint." In the mid-week 
meeting for prayer and fellowship ; in the serv- 
ices of God's house on the Sabbath, and at other 
times, when faithfully embraced, the Christian 
gets a chance, Jonathan-like, to put forth the 
end of his rod, dip it in the honey and the 
honeycomb, and eat by the way. 

There is honey to be had in Christian service, 
too. Happy indeed is the Christian who, while 
pressing on his way through the tangled wild- 
wood and stone-strewn ways of the wood of 
Ephraim, finds and eats of the sweet, strength- 
ening, eye-enlightening honeycomb. 



XXI. 

SPIEITUAL FRAGEANCE. 

Two intelligent Christian men were convers- 
ing recently about the religions reading that 
comes into our families, when one of them men- 
tioned a certaiQ religions weekly. The other 
said: '* What it contains is all trne, bnt it 
lacks fragrance or spiritual flavor." The first 
added that when he took up an article to read, 
he could tell whether the writer was surrend- 
ered to God or not. He added : ' ^ I have often 
seen sermons in priat that were excellent in 
conception, in division, in language, in illustra- 
tion, in logic, but lacking in spiritual aroma. 
They were cold and intellectual, not having 
spiritual flavor. Spiritual fragrance can only 
come through spiritual conditions. "When I find 
souls surrendered to God, I feel communion 
with them in what they say. The fact of their 
abandonment to God produces spiritual feel- 
ing, and no person can counterfeit it. People 

135 



136 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

may imagine they can, but they cannot, and it 
cannot be hid. It is like Christ. * He could 
not be hid. ' Preaching without spiritual aroma 
is like a rose without perfume. ' Christ's name 
is like ointment poured forth.' We can only 
get the perfume by getting more of Christ." 

We are not sure that our two friends were 
altogether generous in their criticisms; never- 
theless there is a large element of truth in what 
they said, and spiritual fragrance is something 
the possession of which is very much to be de- 
sired. 

Christ desired at one time to be hid. He had 
come to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon for con- 
cealment, for needed rest. This fact speaks 
to us of his true humanity. His fatigue was 
real. Nature did not spare him. He knew 
what it was to be " touched with a feeling of 
our infirmities," to sympathize deeply with 
men, to have his soul go out toward the object 
of his solicitude until he was weary in body and 
mind and heart, too, and have nature exact her 
penalty after the time of brave bearing up un- 
der the stress. That Christ was weary and 
sought seclusion tells us of his humanity. 



SPIRITUAL FEAGEANCE 137 

This desiring to be hid tells us also of Christ's 
humility. He entered into a house, and would 
have no man know it. We are sure this desire 
was not prompted by fear or shame, that it did 
not spring from caprice or unworthy policy. 
One reason will be found, as some one has ex- 
pressed it, namely, '* the modesty of high good- 
ness." Christ did not clamor for recognition. 
He did not blow any trumpet or have one blown 
before his face. He did not wish his disciples 
to seek recognition, either. 

Christ's desire to be hid tells also of his sen- 
sitiveness to sin. Wherever you find rare 
purity, as was in Christ, you find this shrinking 
from the corruptions of the times. The desire 
to escape from the world's wickedness Christ 
felt, and this feeling is shared by all his pure- 
hearted followers. Heart-sore, heart-sick on 
account of the sin he saw around him, Christ 
sought to be hid, at least for a little time, just 
as a pure-hearted man we know of, in a strange 
city once found himself in a street where solici- 
tation to evil dogged his every step ; suddenly 
he saw a church door open, and he took refuge 
within long enough to compose his thoughts and 



138 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

get courage to beat Hs way out of the slums of 
iniquity into the midst of which he had fallen. 

Christ could not be hid. Why? Because he 
was good, and goodness is self-revealing. A 
rose cannot be hid. You have it in your pocket. 
But people know it. It sheds fragrance. Emi- 
nent goodness will out. 

Christ cannot be hid, because great need is 
sure to seek him. As some one has said: 
'^ Misery has a swift instinct for a helper." 
That mother, whose daughter was tormented 
with an evil spirit, had a quick sagacity to find 
Christ, the Healer. And the world's need to- 
day feels after Christ if haply it may find him. 

Christ cannot be hid, because true love will 
surely find him ; because earnest faith will ever 
lead to him ; because his disciples will make him 
known. 

The true disciple of Christ cannot be hid. He 
cannot be hid any more than his Master can. 
Christ's name is '* like ointment poured forth." 
There is a spiritual fragrance about a true 
Christian's life that makes its presence known. 
Once, in crossing a meadow, we came to a place 
that was filled with fragrance. Yet we could 



SPIRITUAL FEAGEANCE 139 

see no flowers, and we wondered whence tlie 
fragrance came. At last we found, low down, 
close to the ground, hidden by the tall grass, 
innumerable little flowers, sweet forget-me-nots. 
It was from these the fragrance came. Thev 
could not be hid. 

'* The lives that make the world so sweet 

Are shy, and hide like the humble flowers; 
We pass them by with our careless feet. 
Nor dream ^twas their fragrance fills the 
bower 
And cheers and comforts us hour by hour. ' ' 

How are we to have spiritually fragrant lives ? 
First, cultivate the spirit of Christ. Be like 
him human and humane. Be like him humble 
and self-sacrificing. Be like him sensitive to 
sin. Secondly, be much with Christ. In that 
way we will become like him. '* Why are you 
sweet r' was asked of the scented clay. '^ Oh, 
I was so long in the sweet society of the rose 
that I partook of the nature of the rose." Be 
much with Christ and you will partake of the 
nature of Christ. Prize every opportunity to 
be with him. Seek communion with him. Be- 
ing with him, partaking of his nature, like him 



140 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

you cannot be Md. Tour influence will be for 
good. You will live a spiritually fragrant 
life. 



XXIL 

THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST. 

Differences of position and circumstances 
among men affect very much their power to 
sympathize with one another. It is a difficult 
matter, for example, for those born to wealth 
and affluence to enter into the difficulties and 
understand the hardships endured by those to 
whom life is a perpetual struggle for the barest 
necessities. It is difficult for those who are 
well and strong to sympathize with those with 
bodily infirmities and illness. It is not un- 
natural, then, that persons, judging by human 
analogies, should sometimes suppose that he 
who was the Son of God, the King of Glory, 
would be indisposed to sympathize with 
wretched, sin-benighted men on earth. But the 
Bible assures us of the exact contrary. It tells 
us that Christ is pre-eminently the sympathizing 
one. *' He is touched with a feeling of our 
infirmities." 

141 



142 GKOWING TOWAED GOD 

His preparation for exercising this sympathy 
toward ns was in the fact that *' he was in all 
points tempted like as we are." The similar- 
ity of his circumstances qualifies him for sym- 
pathizing with us. As some one has aid, ** Just 
as the light becomes tinged with the hues of the 
glass it passes through, so the unfathomable 
love of the Son of God becomes sympathetic 
towards men as it passes to us through the hu- 
man heart, steeped in sorrow, agonized with suf- 
fering, of the Son of man. ' ' Egypt has its two 
great water courses, its river and its sweet- 
water canal. The canal conveys the sweet 
waters of the river where the river itself can- 
not take them. The human heart of Jesus is 
the canal which conducts the sweet waters of 
the divine love in streams of sympathy to the 
parched souls of men. 

The sympathy of Jesus goes out to us through 
knowledge. Many springs of earthly sympathy 
are sealed through ignorance ; but the sympathy 
of Jesus is never lacking through want of knowl- 
edge. Christ knows our every care. The sym- 
pathy of Jesus is prompted by his nature. 
With him to know is to care. The sympathy of 



THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST 143 

Jesus is deepened by his own experiences. 
There can after all be but little true sympathy, 
however loving the heart, where there has been 
no similar experience. It is a widow who knows 
best how to speak words of comfort to another 
bereaved of husband. It is the man who has 
passed through the agonies of a financial dif- 
ficulty himself who knows best how to cheer the 
one who, after every effort to retrieve his for- 
tune, yet finds himself going, step by step, to 
the wall. It is in the school of experience that 
the language of s^onpathy is . best taught. 
Christ's knowledge of our trials is not theoret- 
ical, but an experimental one. * ' They tell us, ' ' 
says Dr. Maclaren, ** that in some trackless 
lands, when one friend passes through the path- 
less forests he breaks a twig ever and anon as 
he goes, that those who come after hitn may see 
the traces of his having been there, and may 
know that they are not out of the road. Oh, 
when we are journeying through the murky 
night and the dark woods of affliction and sor- 
row, it is something to find here and there a 
sprig broken or a leaf bent down with the tread 
of Christ's feet and the brush of his hand as he 



144 GEOWING TOWAED GOE 

passed, and to remember tliat the patli he trod 
he has hallowed and that there are lingering 
fragrances and hidden strengths in the remem- 
brance, ' in all points tempted as we are,' bear- 
ing grief for us, bearing grief with us, bearing 
grief like us. ' ' 

Christ's own sufferings were his preparation 
for his mission of sympathy with men. He be- 
came a man in order that he might be touched 
with a feeling of our infirmities. 

The intensity of his sympathy with us is 
shown when it is said, ^* He is touched with a 
feeling of our infirmities." There is no more 
tender Bible verse than this. What touches us 
touches Christ. What concerns us concerns 
Christ. He has a wonderful keenness of sym- 
pathy. His nature is an intensely sensitive one. 
When in the world he always felt most keenly 
anything that could touch the feelings of his 
fellow men. He is wondrously quick to under- 
stand and wondrously ready to sympathize with 
the sorrows of his people. ^ * He is touched with 
a feeling of our infirmities." That is some- 
thing deeper than simply to know the fact of 
our infirmities. At some time you may have 



THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST 145 

been ill and called a physician. Yon f onnd dif- 
ficulty in making known to him the mere fact 
of yonr pain ; bnt Christ is one who is touched 
with the feeling of onr infirmities. He enters 
with ns into our sorrows and troubles. ' ^ Touched 
with the feeling ' '— how deep that goes. 

But the sympathy of Jesus is as wide as it is 
ready. He whose exquisitely sensitive soul was 
thrilled by the beauty of a lily or moved by the 
fall of a sparrow is keenly touched by whatever 
can concern a human heart, whether high or low, 
good or bad, a friend or an enemy. No one can 
be beyond the reach of his all-comprehending 
sympathy. The reason is because no one can 
be beyond the embrace of his all-comprehending 
love. And his sympathy is as deep and tender 
as it is ready and comprehensive. One reason 
is that he has been tempted in all points like as 
we are. He can sympathize with the poor be- 
cause he has been poor. He can sympathize 
with the weary and heavy laden because he him- 
self has been tired and worn. He can sym- 
pathize with the lonely, the misrepresented and 
the persecuted because he himself has been in 
their position. 



146 GEOWING TOWARD GOD 

Let us not forget, either, that his is a prac- 
tical sympathy, a help-rendering sympathy. 
"We might have earthly friends who could sym- 
pathize with us but lacking in wisdom or ability 
could not render us definite help ; but Christ is 
both willing and able to help. His sympathy 
for the hungry multitudes led him to spread a 
table for them in the wilderness. His sympathy 
for the widow weeping beside the bier led him 
to restore to her arms her only son. His sym- 
pathy for Mary and Martha led him to weep 
at the grave and also to call the brother they 
mourned to come forth. It is the knowledge 
that now as then he is as ready and able to help 
us that impels us to come with all assurance to 
the throne of grace and confide to him bur every 
trouble. 

What are some of the directions in which his 
sympathy for us is called out f * ' In all points 
like as we are.'' We are tempted through the 
senses. So was he. We are tempted by op- 
portunities for seeking honor and power. So 
was he. We are tempted through our human 
a:ffections. So was he. We are tempted to de- 
flection from the path of obedience by the in- 



THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST 147 

firmities of the good or tlie crafty questionings 
of the worldly wise. So was he. Every test- 
ing process to which we are subjected he went 
through. He is touched with our physical in- 
firmities. How plainly this is shown by all his 
ministries to the sick and suffering while in the 
world. He is touched with the infirmities of 
our prayers. We know not what we should 
pray for as we ought but the Spirit maketh in- 
tercession for us with groanings that cannot be 
uttered. Christ picks out the one earnest peti- 
tion from the rubbish, or the one real need from 
the many things we ask, and answers according 
to his knowledge of what is best. He is touched 
with the infirmity of our temper. He knows 
our frame, he remembers that we are dust. He 
does not expect impossible things of us, and 
when we fail in what he has a right to expect, 
he forgives. He sympathizes with us in our 
poor efforts at doing good. He knows that 
when we would do good evil is present with us. 
He takes the wish for the deed, and says, ^ ' * It 
was good that it was in thine heart,' that thou 
didst purpose it." 

We may find much comfort in this thought of 



148 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

the sympathy of Christ, his tenderness towards 
lis all. *' The bruised reed will he not break, 
and the smoking flax will he not quench. ' ' He 
knows us. He loves us. He sympathizes with 
us. He is ever ready to help us. '* We have 
not a high priest who cannot be touched with a 
feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all points 
tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let 
us come therefore boldly unto the throne of 
Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace 
to help in time of need." 



xxni. 

OUR RICH HELPER. 

Every Christiaii is a bundle of needs. He 
Has needs physical. There seems to be no crea- 
ture with so many and such constantly recur- 
ring needs. He has needs social. Life can only 
develop itself by clinging to other forms of life. 
So our affections need objects about which to 
twine if we would develop strength and beauty. 
Such words as father, mother, brother, friend, 
represent the needs of our social nature. He 
has needs mental. The mind in its best state 
is like the garden of Eden; but uncultivated it 
is like a wilderness which brings forth only 
thorns. It needs teachers, books, culture. Man 
has moral and spiritual needs also. He is a 
sinner. These words are enough to express his 
utter poverty. He needs nothing less than 
God's great salvation. But salvation does not 
end his needs. Even as a redeemed soul a 
man's needs are many and constantly recurring. 

149 



150 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

The Christian is a sinner and needs frequent 
forgiveness and a constant renewal of spiritual 
life. The Christian is a traveller, journeying 
across the desert of this world, rough, arid, dry, 
and with enemies on every hand. He cannot 
perform the journey in his own strength. How 
great then his need! The Christian is a 
voyager, trying to cross the rough and boister- 
ous ocean of life. There are waves of distress, 
billows of trouble, storms of adversity, shoals 
of danger, quicksands of error and rocks of de- 
struction he has to encounter. What will be 
the fate of his poor bark if he have not the 
breezes of divine influence to waft him, the 
anchor of hope to steady him, the compass di- 
vine to direct him, the voice of the Captain to 
cheer him, and the hand of the Pilot to guide 
him safely to the haven of everlasting peace? 
The Christian is a racer, trying to reach the 
goal of glory. A thousand voices call him back. 
Innumerable attractions of the world allure him 
aside. Earthly weights and cares threaten to 
cast him down. How liable he is to faint and 
tire, and, therefore, how great is his need of the 
divine stimulus and strength. The Christian 



OUE EICH HELPER 151 

is a soldier, trying to win the victor's crown. 
His foes are legion in number and very strong, 
for he wrestles not against flesh and blood mere- 
ly, *^ but against principalities, against powers, 
against the rulers of darkness of this world, 
against spiritual wickedness in high places." 
Surely Omnipotence alone can uphold us in our 
battle with spiritual foes. No one can ever 
over-express it — our needs seem infinitely 
great and many, the demand to meet them al- 
most inimitably large. 

Is it not therefore a great consolation to hear 
an Apostle speaking of a sure and ample supply 
for every possible necessity? *' My God shall 
supply all you need, according to his riches in 
glory by Christ Jesus." 

The agent is God, the medium through Christ 
Jesus, and the measure and resource are pro- 
portionate to need and out of the inexhaustible 
supply of heaven. These things being so, then 
we know that the meeting of all our needs is 
certain. Paul is positive that this source will 
never fail. The reason was he knew it could 
not fail. The meeting of our needs is not only 
certain, but it will be abundant. It will not be 



152 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

simply according to our necessities. That 
would require a great supply. But, better than 
that, it will be according to God's riches, suited 
to his character not ours, commensurate with 
his magnificence rather than with our poverty 
and need. God is rich, gloriously rich, and he 
gives not according to our measure, but accord- 
ing to his measure. A courtier once said to his 
king, who was bestowing upon him a gift: 
^' This is too much for me to receive." Said 
the king: *' But it is not too much for me to 
give." God gives like a king, with regard to 
his great resources, '^ according to his riches in 
glory." 

The supply will be, therefore, not according 
to our deserving. Instead, it will be according 
to the glorious fullness of his grace. If the glo- 
riously rich God gives according to his wealth, 
not according to our deserving, but according 
to his grace and loving favor in Christ, how 
rich, indeed, he makes us all ! The supply will 
be adapted to our need. The need is great, 
diversified, constant. The supply will be sea- 
sonable, suitable, abundant. On a merchant's 
desk we once saw a book labeled * ^ Want Book. " 



OUE EICH HELPER 153 

How comforting it is to know that God has a 
*' supply book " which exactly meets our want 
book! His promises, providences and divine 
visitations combine to meet the necessities of 
all his people. The supply will be through the 
medium of Christ. Christ Jesus is the channel 
of communication of God's blessings by virtue 
of his atonement. All the riches of God 's grace 
and the raptures and splendor of an eternal 
heaven are to be given through Christ. 

This blessed promise is yours, yours to live 
upon, and is made by a very rich helper. Are 
you neglecting or ignoring it? 

Many years ago an aged and ragged Indian 
wandered into one of our Western settlements, 
begging for food to keep him from starving. A 
bright colored ribbon was seen about his neck 
from which hung a small, dirty pouch. On be- 
ing asked what it was, he said that it was a 
charm given him in his younger days. He 
opened it and took out a worn and crumpled 
paper. It proved on careful inspection to be a 
regular discharge from the Continental army 
entitling him to a pension for life, and signed by 
General Washington himself. Here was a man 



154 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

with a promise duly signed, which, if presented 
in the right place would have secured to him 
ample provision for all his days, and yet he was 
wandering about hungry and helpless and for- 
lorn, and begging for bread to keep him from 
starving ! And what a picture it gives, too, of 
many Christians, who, with all the promises of 
Jehovah in their hands, the charter of an 
eternal inheritance in full possession, are yet 
gloomy and sad and starving in the wilderness ! 



XXIV. 

THE LOVE OF THE HOLY SPIEIT. 

We often sing, '* Wliat a friend we have in 
Jesus, ' ' and ' * One tliere is above all others well 
deserves the name of friend. ' ' We easily think 
of Christ as our friend, and rejoice in the 
thought of his tender love. But do we think 
as easily and realize as fully what a friend we 
have in the Holy Spirit ? Is Jesus so exclusive- 
ly our friend as to warrant us in slighting our 
great Sanctifier, Comforter and Teacher, the 
Holy Spirit ? We may be sure that Jesus him- 
self does not wish us to do so. Indeed, he 
wishes quite the contrary. He has made it 
plain that he wishes us to honor and love the 
Spirit, even as we honor and love himself. Was 
not this the very burden of his message as he 
talked with his disciples that last night before 
his crucifixion? The character, the coming and 
the work of the Holy Spirit was his theme in his 
heart-to-heart talk. He especially told the dis- 

155 



156 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

ciples that the Spirit was coming to take his 
place, and that this would be better for them, 
and for the world, too, than to have his own 
bodily presence. We are living now in that 
dispensation of the Spirit. 

He is a person. He is not simply an in- 
fluence. Christ used the personal pronoun 
when referring to him. He said, ^' I will send 
him. ' ' He said, ' ' He will testify of me. ' ' He 
said, ^^ Whom the Father will send in my 
name. ' ' In the baptism formula he said we are 
to be baptized '^ In the name of the Father and 
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. ' ' He warned 
us that it is possible to ** blaspheme against the 
Holy Ghost." It is possible to blaspheme only 
against a person. In John 16 :7-14, in the short 
space of seven verses only, Christ eleven times 
repeated uses the personal pronoun *^ He " in 
referring to the Holy Spirit, instead of the im- 
personal pronoun '* it." Suppose you read the 
thirteenth verse, using the impersonal pronoun, 
as even Christians sometimes use the word 
without thought in referring to the Holy Spirit. 
^' Howbeit, when it, the Spirit of truth, is come, 
it shall guide you into all truth, for it shall not 



LOVE OF THE HOLY SPIEIT 157 

speak of itself, but whatsoever it shall hear that 
shall it speak, and it shall show you things to 
come. It shall glorify me, for it shall receive 
of mine and show it to you. ' ' You see at once 
that in reading the passage in this way you 
utterly undermine the force of the statements, 
destroy their dignity and mar their meaning. 

The Holy Spirit is a person, and as a person 
he loves us, and we should love him. We should 
love the Spirit just as we love Christ, both be- 
cause Christ asks us to do so, and because of the 
love of the Spirit and of his great work for us 
and in us. Jesus is infinite, eternal and un- 
changeable ; so in the Holy Spirit. Jesus loves 
us and gave himself for us. The Holy Spirit 
applies Christ 's work to our souls, regenerating, 
convicting, converting, sanctifying us. Jesus 
is not more constantly with us than is the Holy 
Spirit ; indeed, he is with us most fully through 
the influence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, 
for he sent the Spirit to abide with the Church 
in all the varied experiences of life. Verily we 
have a friend in Jesus — in the great, loving, 
personal Christ, who walked and talked on 
earth, and who now intercedes for us in glory. 



158 GEOWING TOWARD GOD 

But because we have him for a friend let us not 
forget that we have also a friend in the great, 
living, loving, personal Spirit, who now dwells 
in the Church and makes a home for himself in 
every heart that is willing to receive him. 

It is our duty to recognize the love of the 
Spirit. This love is directly stated in God's 
Word. It is this love which was appealed to by 
the Apostle Paul when in writing to the Romans 
he said: ^' Now, I beseech you, brethren, for 
the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love 
of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me 
in your prayers." Do you love the Holy 
Spirit ? Would you be as ready with an answer 
as if one were to say, '' Do you love Jesus?" 
Or, if the question were put in this way, ^ ' Does 
the Holy Spirit love you?" Would the answer 
be as prompt and certain as if the question were, 
*' Does God love you?" There are a great 
many Christians who have not gotten much be- 
yond the statement of the Apostle's Creed, ^' I 
believe in the Holy Ghost." We may have 
prayed to him as a Spirit of power; but how 
often do we think of him as a Spirit of love, 
who loves personally with divine love unspeak- 



LOVE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 159 

able? Probably one reason why we do not 
think of the Spirit more as loving and as a per- 
son is because of the fact that he ever subordi- 
nates his own glory to the glory of Christ. 
Christ said of him, ' * He shall not speak of him- 
self." He said, ^' He shall glorify me." The 
Holy Spirit certainly manifests a divine self- 
forgetfulness and benevolence, and exalts 
Christ. But on that account we must not for- 
get him. We must remember him, cherish his 
presence, and rejoice in his love. 

It is the love of the Spirit that causes him to 
strive with us. He might justly pass us by 
when we resist him, as we so often do. It is 
because he loves us, loves us equally with the 
Father and the Son, that he strives with us over 
and over again and tries to make a holy temple 
of our hearts. 

It is the love of the Spirit which causes him to 
convict us of sin. This is apart of his gracious 
work. When Christ was speaking of the 
Spirit's work as guide and comforter, he also 
included the equally loving office which he exer- 
cises of convicting men of sin : '' And when he 
is come he will reprove — or convict — the 



160 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

world of sin and of righteousness and of judg- 
ment." He does more than reprove. He con- 
victs. That is generally considered a thankless 
office. Few, indeed, there are who have the 
moral courage, not to say devoted love, to tell 
their dearest friends their faults and point out 
to them faithfully, yet kindly, their sins. But 
the Holy Spirit loves us faithfully. He, there- 
fore, convicts. But he does it with the deepest 
motive of love, and expressly to lead us to 
Christ who is the Saviour from sin, from its 
guilt, its power, its penalty. 

The love of the Spirit it is that leads us to 
confess Christ. *^ He takes of the things of 
Christ and shows them unto us;" making him 
to be seen in his beauty and glory and love as a 
Saviour. He takes us to the cross. He says : 

** See from His hands, His head, His feet, 
Sorrow and love flow mingled down," 

and then asks us if ever there was sorrow like 
that sorrow, or ever love like that love. Yes, 
he shows us what Christ has done for us. Then 
willingly, gladly. Spirit-induced, we accept 
Christ as our Saviour and confess him as our 
Lord. 



LOVE OF THE HOLY SPIEIT 161 

A soldier at the battle of Williamsburg was 
sbot. An artery of Ms leg was severed. He 
was fast bleeding to death. He saw a surgeon 
hastening to the front, and called to him for his 
help. His life could be saved in a moment if 
some one would but bind up the artery. The 
surgeon dismounted from his horse and gave 
the needed relief. But as he turned to go the 
man exclaimed, ' * Doctor, what is your name I ' ' 
** Oh, no matter," replied the physician. 
* * Yes, doctor, I want to know your name ; I 
want to tell my wife and my children who it was 
that saved me. ' ' 

The Holy Spirit puts an impulse like that into 
the heart of the saved Christian. Christ comes 
to us binding up our broken hearts, healing our 
wounded spirits, saving our dying souls, and we 
feel that it is as little as we can do to tell others 
of him. We are glad to confess him anywhere 
and everywhere, under the impulse of a grati- 
tude which the Holy Spirit awakens. 

A little boy was dismissed, healed, from one 
of our hospitals not long ago. The nurse had 
been kind to him. He felt that he owed to her 
his life. When the hour came for him to leave 



162 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

he threw his arms about the nurse's neck and 
exclaimed, '' My mother will never hear the 
last of you ! ' ' He was going to sing her praises 
to every one he met. It was gratitude, a great, 
warm, thankful gratitude he felt, and he was 
going to express it. 

It is thus that the Holy Spirit works in the 
hearts of men, moving them to a recognition 
of what Christ has done for them, and then 
gladly, gratefully to confess Him everywhere. 

It is the love of the Spirit, too, which makes 
him so patient with us. Do you ever think of 
the wonderful patience of the Holy Spirit? No 
mother was ever so patient with a disobedient 
child; no father ever grieved so over a prodi- 
gal son; no wife ever so bore with a drunken 
husband as the patient, loving, long-suifering 
Holy Spirit bears with us in our waywardness 
and forgetfulness and sin. Every step of the 
way he tries to claim our thoughts, arrest our 
attention and turn us to Christ and the things 
that are Christ-like. 

It is the love of the Spirit that causes him to 
labor for our sanctification. We are born .of 
the Spirit, but we are born as babes into the 



LOVE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 163 

kingdom. Just as little infants or young chil- 
dren need a mother's care, so we need the in- 
struction and guidance and strengthening, 
comforting, sanctifying work of the loving 
Spirit. The Holy Spirit ' * mothers ' ' us, broods 
over us, tenderly cares for us. Eegeneration 
and justification, may be, are, immediate; but 
our sanctification is a slow process, often much 
too slow, putting a great, laborious necessity 
upon the Holy Spirit. And yet how patient he 
is, how lovingly he labors on to perfect the 
image of Christ in us! 

It is the love of the Spirit that makes him our 
comforter. Christ forgot himself in comfort- 
ing his disciples that night of his betrayal. 
Self-forgetful of the cross, he said to his mourn- 
ing disciples, ** I will not leave you comfort- 
less." I will send another comforter unto 
you." The Holy Spirit comes to take Christ's 
place — as though he were still here. Yes, it is 
even better than if Christ were here. He him- 
self says that it is better. ' ' It is expedient for 
you that I go away; for if I go not away the 
comforter will not come unto you; but if I 
depart I will send him unto you." Christ 



164 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

could not be bodily present everywhere. That 
would be the limitation were he to stay. But 
the Holy Spirit can dwell within every heart in 
all the -world and prove the very guide and 
comforter we need. 

We need help in the Christian life. God is 
the source of our help ; but the love of the Holy 
Spirit is shown again, in the fact that his love 
causes him to lead us and help us to pray. 
* * We know not what we should pray for as we 
ought, but the Spirit himself maketh interces- 
sion for us with groanings which cannot be 
uttered." ** We pray always with all prayer 
and supplication in the Spirit." 

Let us carry with us evermore a deeper con- 
sciousness of the love of the Spirit; and let us 
not resist him or grieve him or quench him. 
Let us love him and ever yield ourselves fully 
to Him, and to all his gracious influences. 

In a sermon by Rev. Prof. Benjamin B. War- 
field, recently published, upon this theme of 
the Love of the Holy Ghost, he says: *' What 
immense riches of comfort and joy this great 
truth has in it for our souls! Were the work 
of the application of Christ's redemption to 



LOVE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 165 

us performed by some mere servant-agent, in- 
different to US, and intent only on perfunctor- 
ily fulfilling the task committed to him, we 
might well tremble for our salvation. It is 
only because the Spirit which he has caused to 
dwell in us yearneth for us even unto jealous 
envy, that he is able to continue his gracious 
work of drawing our souls to God amid the in- 
credible oppositions we give to his holy work. 

''It is the ' Spirit whom God has caused to 
dwell within us. ' It is he, the indwelling Spirit, 
who, we are told, yearns for us with envious 
jealousy whenever the world obtains a hold 
upon our hearts. And let us not fail to gather 
the full gracious meaning of the word ' dwell ' 
here. It is the word to denote permanent hab- 
itation in contra-distinction from temporary 
sojourning. God has caused the Spirit of love 
not to visit our hearts merely, but to abide 
there; not to tarry there for a season merely, 
tentatively, as it were, and on trial, but to make 
his home there, to ' settle ' there, to establish 
his permanent dwelling there. 

*' It is in the hands of such love that we have 
fallen. And it is because we have fallen into 



166 GEOWING TOWARD GOD 

the hands of such love that we have before us a 
future of eternal hope. 

*' Among the legends which popular fancy 
has woven around the memory of Francis of 
Assisi, we are told that he was riding along one 
day in the first joy of his new-found peace, his 
mind possessed with a desire to live over again 
the life of absolute love which his divine Master 
had lived in the earth. Suddenly ^ at a turn in 
the road, he found himself face to face with a 
leper. The frightful malady had always in- 
spired in him an invincible repulsion. He 
could not control a movement of horror, and by 
instinct he turned his horse in another direc- 
tion.' Then came the quick revulsion of feel- 
ing. ' He retraced his steps and, springing 
from his horse, he gave to the astounded suf- 
ferer all the money that he had ; and then kissed 
his hand, as he would have done to a priest.' 
A new era in his spiritual life had dawned. He 
visited the lazaretto itself and with largeness 
of alms and kindly words sought to bring some 
brightness of the outside world into the gloomy 
retreat. Still his love grew stronger. The 
day came when he made the great renuncia- 



LOVE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 167 

tion and stood before men endued with nanght 
but the love of Christ. Now no temporary laz- 
aretto contented him. He must dwell there as 
a permanent sunbeam to the distressed. He 
came now with empty hands, but with a heart 
full to overflowing with compassion. ' Taking 
up his abode in the midst of the afflicted, he 
lavished upon them a most touching care, wash- 
ing and wiping their sores, all the more gentle 
and radiant as the sores were more repulsive.' 
'^ It is not given to man, of course, even to 
comprehend, much less to embody in a legend 
like this, all the richness of God's mysterious 
love for sinners. But in such legends as this 
we may catch some faint shadow of what the 
Spirit's love for us means. No leprous sores 
can be as foul in the eyes of the daintiest bred 
as sin is foul in the eyes of the Holy Spirit. 
We cannot conceive of the energy of his shrink- 
ing from its polluting touch. Yet he comes 
into the foul lazaretto of our hearts and dwells 
there; not for himself, or any good to accrue 
to himself; but solely that he may cleanse us 
and fit us to be what he has made us, the Bride, 
the Lamb's wife." 



XXV. 

LIVING IN EIGHT EELATIONS TOWAED 
THE HOLY SPIEIT. 

The question of the relation toward the Holy 
Spirit in which we live is an all-important one. 
One of Frances Eidley Havergal's poems tells 
of an ^olian harp which a friend sent her with 
a letter describing the wonderful sweetness of 
its tones. Miss Havergal took the harp and 
thrummed its seven strings, but there were no 
thrilling strains, only common music. She 
then read the letter again, and found instruc- 
tions which she had overlooked at first. Then 
she raised the window and put the harp under 
the sash. Now the wind swept over the strings 
and the room was filled with the melodious 
strains such as no fingers of man could have 
produced. Only when the breath of heaven 
blew upon the harp could its marvelous music be 
brought out. The human soul is such a harp. 
Human fingers call out much that is lovely and 

168 



LIVING IN EIGHT EELATIONS 169 

sweet ; but it is only wlien the chords are swept 
by the breath of heaven, by the Holy Spirit, 
that its noblest music is brought out. The 
music came when the harp was in right relation 
with the wind. How important that we shall 
be in right relation with the Holy Spirit; that 
we shall get where and stay where the breath 
of heaven can sweep over us. 

When in the right relation the blessing comes. 
In speaking of a body of Christians who had 
earnestly been seeking in prayer for the 
Spirit's presence, one, in describing the expe- 
rience that came to all, said, ^' A conscious 
wave of blessing was felt throughout the whole 
gathering." Another used these words in de- 
scribing the experience of another company met 
in a spiritual retreat : ' ' A warm wave of bless- 
ing passed through the whole company." "We 
are sure that there is such a thing, both in pub- 
lic worship and in the privacy of life, as being 
in such relation to the Holy Spirit as to have 
felt his presence, with great blessedness re- 
sulting. 

How are we to live in right relation to the 
Holy Spirit? First, abstain from all that 



170 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

would repel him. He is a Holy Spirit. He 
loves holiness. He will dwell with those with 
broken and contrite heart and who make no al- 
lowance for sin. Secondly, cultivate the sense 
of dependence upon him. Our dependence upon 
the Spirit is absolute. Too often we do not 
recognize the fact. We try to get along with- 
out him. How prone we are to depend on our- 
selves, upon our good resolutions, upon our own 
wisdom and strength rather than upon the 
power of the ever-present, loving and almighty 
Spirit. And in our Christian work, as par- 
ents, as teachers, as preachers, as church offi- 
cers and members, how prone we are to put 
faith in machinery, in instrumentalities, in new 
methods, and in sensational excitements rather 
than in the Holy Spirit ! 

Christ did not heal the sick until they had 
given up hope that they could heal themselves. 
Christ does not convert us until we give up the 
hope that we can convert ourselves. He does 
not, through the Spirit, work salvation in any 
church or community until the people give up 
the thought that it is by their own skill, or elo- 
quence, or powers, or machinery the work can 



LIVING IN EIGHT EELATIONS 171 

be done. The first thing of importance is for 
us to recognize our absolute dependence upon 
the Holy Spirit. The next thing is to work 
with all our might. He uses human instru- 
ments, that is true. But he only uses such hu- 
man instruments as first look to Him in de- 
pendence. Mr. Moody once told a man who 
was expecting conversion through his own 
works to give up the effort. He said: '* The 
first thing for you to do is to depend upon 
Christ alone to save you. After that you may 
work, work, work, with all your might. ' ' 

Then, too, pray. Ask for the Holy Spirit's 
help and blessing. Pentecost was preceded by 
prayer. God is more willing to give the Holy 
Spirit in answer to prayer than earthly parents 
are to give good gifts to their children. But 
prayer, the asking, is a condition of having the 
Spirit in any degree of power. We are in a 
right relation to the Spirit only when we are 
in the attitude of prayerfully seeking his pres- 
ence with us. 

Also plead the promises. The disciples in 
the upper room, before the day of Pentecost, 
had a right to plead Christ's promise to send 



172 GEO WING TOWAED GOD 

the Spirit. They could say, '^ You said that 
you would send him. We wait here. We wait 
the fulfillment of the promise.'' The Spirit 
did come in mighty power. We can have him 
too, in answer to prayer and promise-pleading. 
Then grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. He 
is a loving Spirit. We may grieve him just 
as we grieve any other friend — by neglecting 
him, or slighting him, or going contrary to his 
wishes and interests. We may grieve him by 
showing lack of confidence in him. We may 
grieve him by resisting his gracious influences, 
his teachings, his wooings, his warnings. He 
is an infallible guide. Very often we are in 
trouble and he brings to our minds the precious 
promises of God, the strong consolations of the 
gospel, but we refuse to be comforted and com- 
plain and cry when we ought to wipe our tears 
away and sing. He counsels us to set our af- 
fections upon things above, but we spend our 
time and strength scraping together the things 
that perish. He points us to friends and com- 
panions who have chosen the narrow way to 
life eternal, but we say, ^ ^ Go thy way for this 
time; when I have a more convenient season I 



LIVING IN EIGHT EELATIONS 173 

will call for thee." In these ways and other 
ways we grieve the loving Holy Spirit, the 
friend who has done so much for us, and upon 
whom we are dependent for the future. 

We have read an account of a boy who had a 
dove so tame that it would perch upon his 
shoulder and take food from his hand. One 
day he held out a tempting morsel, and, being 
in an ill-natured mood, just as the dove was 
about to eat, he closed his hand. The bird 
turned away disappointed. He held out his 
hand again. The dove came forward timidly, 
but once more the hand was closed. With 
drooping wings the dove went to the further 
corner of the room. Once more the hand was 
extended. This time the bird hesitated. Fi- 
nally it came forward slowly, hesitatingly; it 
was just about to take the food when the hand 
was again closed. Then the dove spread its 
wings and flew away, and the boy never saw 
that dove again. 

The Holy Spirit may be grieved, effectually 
•grieved. His gentle monitions may be so 
slighted, his wooing influence so evil-treated, 
that in sorrow he will suspend his gentle min- 



174 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

istry. The Holy Spirit is a tender Spirit, and 
no violent resistance or gross form of conduct 
is necessary to cause his departure from the 
soul. Let us watch our hearts, our thoughts, 
our conduct. Let us not resist him, grieve 
him, quench him. Instead, let us ally ourselves 
with him. He will work with us if we do. He 
will make his strength perfect in our weakness. 
He will comfort us. He will enlighten us. He 
will guide us. He will cleanse and sanctify us. 
He will make us meet for the inheritance of the 
saints in the light if we will give him temple 
room in our hearts and will live in such rela- 
tion to him that he can consistently reach us 
and hless us. 



XXVI. 

/ THE FANCIES OF LIFE. 

There is an element in human nature which 
continually longs for things to be otherwise 
than as they are. ^ ' If only we were differently 
placed, how much better lives we could live ! ' ' 
We are all more or less afflicted by these fan- 
cies, and injured by them. Indeed, there are 
some of us who spend more time in imagining 
what we would do under altered circumstances 
than we earnestly devote to performing what 
we ought to do situated just as we are. 

These fancies of life are the source of much 
discontent. *' Oh that I had — what? What I 
have not ! Oh that I had— what some one else 
has! " This is the attitude of these malcon- 
tents. In summer they wish it was winter; in 
winter they pine for the warmth of summer. 
If they live in the city they long for the country ; 
when there they pronounce it too *' slow '' and 
hurry back to town. In the valley they yearn 

175 



176 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

for the mountain tops; when they reach them 
they cry for the valley again. 

A lady walking with her husband, and seeing 
a carriage go by, said to him : * ' Look at that 

splendid carriage Judge H and his wife 

are driving about in. I only wish we could be so 
lucky." Up in the carriage the judge's wife 
was saying to him: '* I am getting positively 
ashamed of this old rig. Look how the people 
stand and stare at us in contempt. If you do 
not wish to drive me to despair you must buy a 
new turnout." 

A king riding along a highway passed the 
stone-breaker by the wayside. Thought the 
stone-breaker : ' * Oh that I were like that king, 
possessed of all that heart could wish!" The 
monarch, glancing at him, was murmuring to 
himself : ' ' Would I were like that man, so free 
from anxiety, with so little worry and care ! " 

Did you ever read the fable of the beetle, 
and the weather-cock? ** How fine," said the 
beetle, '* to be up there; what splendid views; 
how clear the atmosphere!" *' Yes," said the 
weather-cock, ** and if you were up here, you 
would know how keenly blows the wind!" 



THE FANCIES OF LIFE 177 

The fancies of life keep us poor. Discontent 
is poverty. The less-favored woman we men- 
tioned as walking was poor. The judge's wife 
also was poor. The stone-breaker was poor, 
and the monarch was poor. Poverty is largely 
a matter of fancy. The real poverty is in the 
mind— in the mind's attitude. There is such a 
thing as being ** rich without money." That 
man is rich whose mind is rich, whose heart is 
rich, who is rich in integrity, and who has that 
best of all blessings, a contented mind— Chris- 
tian contentment. This last great boon is 
gained through making the least of our little 
lacks, through making the most of our little 
enjoyments, through doing the best with our 
little duties and through trust in God and doing 
the right. To be sure, we cannot all be money 
rich. Some money-rich people are very poor. 
But we can all be millionaires of character and 
of faith, possessing that * * godliness ' ' which 
with ^* contentment " is great gain — the real 
gain — the highest riches. 

It need scarcely be added that the fancies of 
life cause us great unhappiness and make us 
ungrateful. 



178 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

^ ' True happiness is to no place confined. 
But still is found in a contented mind. ' ' 

A philosopher who was passing through a 
mart filled with articles of taste and luxury, we 
are told, made himself perfectly happy with this 
simple yet sage remark: ^' Lord, how many 
things are in the world of which Diogenes hath 
no need!'' 

We have somewhere read that the late and 
greatly beloved Dr. John Hall, of the Fifth 
Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, used 
to say that he liked to look into the windows of 
the stores at Christmas time, to see how many 
things he could do without! 

The unhappy, discontented mind is always an 
ungrateful mind, failing to recognize the abun- 
dance of God's favors. A man of really good 
circumstances once said: '* I look at what I 
have not and count myself unhappy; others 
look at what I have and count me happy." 
What an ungrateful attitude it is toward our 
Heavenly Father, to be looking all the time at 
the things we have not ! It is a sin as well as 
foolish and the source of untold measures of 
misery. 



THE FANCIES OF LIFE 179 

Indulging the fancies of life renders us use- 
less. Not only do we envy what other people 
have; but we often impraetically wish we had 
what others have not. ^^ Wings/' for example 
—something to differentiate us from our neigh- 
bors, to give us some advantage above the 
crowd, to make people stare and gape with 
envy! If only we had '^ wings ''—what won- 
ders we would do! What folly! How useless 
this building of castles in the air renders us! 
And spiritual castle-building is no better than 
any other sort. Even the disciples watching 
their Lord ascend had to be called from idle 
gazing. An angel was sent to say to them : 
*' Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up 
into heaven?" Too much of Christian life 
amounts to little more than standing gazing, 
yearnings after wings ! 

What is true in religion is true in business ; 
and what is true in business is true in religion 
— the castle-building, star-gazing, fancy-filled 
life is a useless life. 

Therefore let us think less about the fancies 
of life and bravely face its facts. Let us make 
the best of things as they are. 



180 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

An Arabian guide once told an American 
traveller a story, which, in condensed form, we 
will relate. Its application the reader can 
readily make. 

There lived in the banks of the Indus River 
an ancient Persian by the name of El Hafed. 
From his beautiful and comfortable cottage on 
the hillside he could look down upon the gleam- 
ing river and out over the glorious sea. He 
was a man of wealth. His fields and orchards 
yielded plentifully, and he had money at in- 
terest. A beautiful wife and lovely children 
shared with him the joy of a happy home. 

One day there came to the cottage a Persian 
priest. That priest sat down with El Hafed 
and told him how diamonds were made. '* If 
you had a diamond,'' said the old priest, ** as 
big as your thumb, you could purchase many 
farms like this, and if you had a bushel you 
could own the whole country. ' ' 

That moment El Hafed became poor. All his 
possessions seemed to lose their value, as the 
feeling of discontent filled his soul. He said: 
*' I must have a mine of diamonds. What is 
the use of spending one's life in this way, in 









THE FANCIES OF LIFE 181 

this narrow sphere? I want a mine, and shall 
have it ! " 

That night he could not sleep. Early the next 
morning he went to the priest and asked where 
he could find those diamonds. ** If you want 
diamonds," said the priest, ** go and get them.'' 
'' Won't you please tell me where I can find 
themr' said El Hafed. '' Well, if you go and 
find high mountains, with a deep river running 
between them, over white sand, in this white 
sand you will find diamonds." 

The enthusiastic, restless, and dissatisfied 
farmer sold his farm, took the money, and went 
off in search of diamonds. He began through 
Egypt and Palestine. Years passed while he 
was pursuing his useless search. At last he 
went over through Europe, and, one day, 
broken-hearted, in rags, a hungry pauper, stung 
with humiliation, and crushed by his bitter dis- 
appointment, he stood on the shore of the Bay 
of Barcelona. He looked at the big waves as 
they came rolling in, and listened to the whisper 
that invited him to peace, and in the moment of 
despair, threw himself in and sank, never to 
rise again. 



182 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

The man who purchased El Hafed's farm, led 
his camel out one day to the stream at the edge 
of the garden to drink. While the camel buried 
his nose in the water, the man noticed a white 
flash of glittering, glistening, sparkling some- 
thing at his feet. Out of curiosity, he reached 
down and picked up a black stone with a strange 
eye of light in it, which seemed to reflect all the 
colors of the rainbow. He took the curiosity to 
the house and laid it on the mantel, and soon 
forgot all about it. 

One day this same old priest came to visit El 
Hafed's successor. He noticed the flash of light 
from the mantel and sprang toward it in amaze- 
ment, and exclaimed: " Here is a diamond! 
Has El Haf ed returned V ' * Oh, no, that is not 
a diamond. It is a stone we found out in the 
garden.'' '^ But I tell you that it is a dia- 
mond, ' ' and the two men went out in the garden 
and stirred up the white sand, and there came 
up in their hands beautiful diamonds more val- 
uable than the first. 

This is all historically true. It was the dis- 
covery of the wonderful mines of Golconda, and 
the founding of the line of Great Moguls. The 



THE FANCIES OF LIFE 183 

guide swung his cap and said, ** Had El Hafed 
remained at home and dug in his own garden, 
he would have been the wealthiest man of his 
time, and the most honored. ' ' 



XXVII. 

SAFEGUAEDS AGAINST SIN. 

Every Christian has, or should have, a strong 
desire to avert sin. That he has an evil bias 
and propensity toward evil is the sad expe- 
rience of every individual. The heart is corrupt. 
The fountain head of moral action is impure. 
All believers know and feel this. Then, too, we 
are surrounded by many temptations to sin. 
The world is full of enticements and snares, 
which often attract and overcome the unwary. 
The heart of the Christian, therefore, needs 
fortifying by the Divine Word and the Divine 
Spirit. Knowing both the evil nature and the 
evil effects of sin no wonder Christians welcome 
any means of safeguard against it. It is a 
happy fact that there are many such safe- 
guards. We mention two that are among the 
most important, suggested by an expression of 
the Psalmist David when he said, ** Thy Word 

184 



SAFEGUAEDS AGAINST SIN 185 

have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin 
against thee. ' ' 

One safeguard suggested is that of strategy. 
This is the way many battles have been won,— 
by strategy. And so it is one of the best ways 
of winning in the spiritual warfare. The Word 
of God is in its very nature expulsive of sin and 
cleansing in its workings. ' ' Wherewithal shall 
a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed 
thereto according to thy Word.'' It is the 
light that scatters both the darkness and the 
creatures that come with the night. Possession 
is by dispossession. Put in the good and the 
evil will be kept out. Use strategy. It is hard 
to get sin out of our lives by main force. The 
better way is to use this divine strategy of over- 
coming evil with good. 

We once saw Mr. Moody hold a glass before 
an audience and say: *^ How am I to get the 
air out of this glass T ' No one answered. He 
turned, and from a pitcher poured the glass to 
overflowing with water. ^ * Now, ' ' said he, * ' the 
air is all out." Let us learn to use strategy. 
Let us put in the good, that the evil may be 
kept out. 



186 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

Our souls are very like a picture gallery. If 
we cover the walls of them with things noble 
and beautiful and pure, the foul and fleshly will 
only seem revolting. *^ Hang this upon the 
wall of your room," said a wise picture dealer 
to an Oxford undergraduate, as he handed him 
an engraving of a Madonna by Raphael, *' and 
then all the pictures of jockeys and ballet girls 
will disappear." Let us try the same experi- 
ment with our souls. Let their walls be hung 
with all things pure and perfect, as the thought 
of God, the image of Christ, the lives of God's 
saints, the inspirations of good and great men, 
the memories of golden deeds, the noble pas- 
sages of poetic thought as found in God's 
Word, and there will be no room for the things 
that defile and deprave. When a bottle is full 
of water you cannot pour oil into it. The best 
way for us to resist evil is to leave no room for 
it in our hearts. Let us learn David's strategy, 
^ ^ Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I 
might not sin against Thee." 

Another safeguard suggested is that of swift 
attack. The Word must be hid in our hearts; 
but it must be like a sword in its sheath, ready 



SAFEGUAEDS AGAINST SIN 187 

to be drawn out at a moment's notice. We must 
use it as Christ used it against Satan when he 
parried every attack by the words, '^ It is writ- 
ten. ' ' For this use of the Word an intellectual 
perception of it is not enough. It must be ' * hid 
in the heart," hid like the leaven in the meal, 
wrought into our thoughts, our purposes, our 
passions, becoming a part of us, and so making 
over and transforming our dispositions that 
they become holy instead of sinful. It must be 
hid like a guard in a house, like a sentinel in a 
fort, to watch diligently against the approach 
of temptation. 

It is a saying in war, ' ' The best defence is a 
swift attack. ' ' This is true in resisting tempta- 
tion also. I cannot tell when my enemy will 
come against me, but I can tell whether I will 
march against him at once, or foolishly wait till 
he has chosen a good position, and fortified him- 
self strongly. We need to crush temptation as 
soon as we see it. Take it by surprise ; give it 
no quarter; dally with it not one instant. A 
swift attack is the best defence. It sometimes 
pays to be ** fast," as in the case of a railroad 
train in the West, of which we recently read. 



188 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

By virtue of its great speed it passed unharmed 
through a cyclone that would certainly have 
wrecked stationary cars. Even so it is with the 
Christian. If he is standing still, the storms of 
temptation have a specially good chance at him ; 
but if he is busily moving on in the right direc- 
tion, his very momentum will carry him through 
some sudden strain that may fall upon him. To 
dally with sin is a sure way to be overcome of 
sin. To have God's Word hid in the heart, and 
then, when temptation comes, use it in swift 
attack, is the way to victory. 



XXVIII. 
SELF-DISCOVERY. 

The prodigal son of Christ's meaningful 
parable had not only run away from his father 
and his family and his home; but he had run 
away from himself. He had run away from 
the voice of reason, and of conscience,— from 
his better nature, from all that constituted him 
a man. Presently his money was spent; his 
capacity blunted ; his character gone ; and then 
the reaction came. His real manhood was 
famishing. It was not only food that he 
wanted, but the hunger of home was upon him, 
the yearning for sympathy and respect and 
love; and this brought him to his senses. He 
'* came to himself," found himself, made a real 
self -discovery of himself. 

But the prodigal son was not the only man 
who has needed to discover himself. It is a 
common need, much more common than many 
suppose. There is often no one of whom a man 

189 



190 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

knows so little or whom lie understands so im- 
perfectly as himself. He is a world to be dis- 
covered. He is born with a body possessing 
certain faculties, but he must find out their 
uses. He has a mind, but it is full of mysteries. 
Some few men seem to be born with positive in- 
stincts of genius that point out their powers, 
but most people seem to have only the faintest 
conception of what they are and what they can 
do. From parents or wise friends they may 
gain some knowledge of their strong and weak 
points ; but it is largely by self-observation that 
they can attain to self-knowledge; and it must 
be self-observation that is keen and honest, 
that takes note of weaknesses and limitations 
as well as strong points. We are born with a 
spiritual nature, too ; and it is remarkable what 
strange misconceptions, apart from the teach- 
ing of the Holy Spirit, we have as to our 
spiritual nature and condition. ** The heart is 
deceitful above all things and desperately 
wicked," and one of its deceits is to hide its 
own deceit, and thus prevent a man from dis- 
covering his own wickedness. ^' Is thy servant 
a dog that he should do this thing?" asked 



SELF-DISCOVERY 191 

Hazael, in his need of self -discovery. ^^ Al- 
though all men should be offended, yet will I 
never be offended/' was the proud, sincere, 
mistaken boast of even a Christian apostle. 
The need of knowing ourselves, of self-discov- 
ery, is a very general need, much more so than 
many think. 

What are the means to self -discovery ? There 
are at least three, of which we name first the 
being left to run our course in sin. In this way 
we bring forth our own fruit, show our real 
selves, and thus by and by come to know our 
real selves. The prodigal went on his own way 
and came to self-knowledge. His fancy picture 
of himself was of an independent, enterprising, 
capable young man who could manage his own 
affairs admirably and make his mark in the 
world, if only he were liberated from the tram- 
mels of the old home. He was given the chance 
to find out, when lo! the fine gentleman turned 
out a vile sinner and the very independent and 
capable young man a poor, starving, enslaved 
swine-feeder. It was then, when he touched 
bottom, that he came to the knowledge of him- 
self, made real self-discovery, and knew who 



192 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

and what he was. Out in the far country of ex- 
perience, when sin has come to its fruitage, 
sinners find out that they are sinners. 

Peter found himself out in this way. He had 
been well warned by Christ himself of the weak- 
ness that was in him ; but he would not believe it, 
until he went on to find through base denial, 
falsehood and blasphemy the tremendous possi- 
bilities of evil that dwelt within him. In some 
similar way thousands of people have been led 
to know themselves, their weakness, their ten- 
dency to sin, and their need of grace from above. 

Another means of self -discovery is by con- 
trast. Self-discovery is promoted by anything 
that throws our sinful nature in contrast with 
God's holy nature. Job justified himself until 
he saw the glory of God, and then he exclaimed : 
* * Woe is me ! for I am undone, because I am 
a man of unclean lips. ' ' Peter, when the glory 
of Christ flashed upon him in the miracle of the 
great draught of fishes, cried out: *' Depart 
from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord. ' ' Each 
case was one of self -discovery by contrast, and 
so men come to know themselves still. In the 
presence of purity we see our own impurity. 



SELF-DISCOVEEY 193 

Still another means of self-discovery is 
through the workings of God's Holy Spirit. 
The divine Spirit opens onr eyes, causing us 
to see ourselves in a true light. Then we judge 
ourselves as God judges us. When you see 
yourself as moved by unholy motives, agitated 
by sinful passions, seeking selfish ends, not hon- 
oring God, then you may know that the Holy, 
Spirit is working within you, bringing you to 
a wholesome and hopeful state of self-knowl- 
edge. 

There are some very desirable results that 
may come from self-discovery. They should 
be the same as in the case of the prodigal,— 
conviction, contrition and conversion. Back to 
the Father's heart and the Father's house and 
the Father's help ! Whether we are Christians 
or among the unsaved this is what self-dis- 
covery should always mean, the causing us to 
flee to God for his grace, mercy and help. 
^^ Search me, God, and know my heart; try 
me and know my thoughts ; and see if there be 
any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way 
everlasting. ' ' 



XXIX. 

ENTHUSIASM AS AN ATTAINMENT. 

A Chinese convert said: ** We want men 
with red-hot hearts to tell ns of the love of 
Christ." Dr. Mason said that the secret of 
Dr. Chalmers ' success in the ministry was * ' his 
blood earnestness." That was the secret of 
the success of Mr. Finney, and it was the secret 
of the success of Mr. Moody. '* A bank never 
becomes successful," said a noted financier, 
*^ until it gets a president that takes it to bed 
with him." It was enthusiasm that enabled 
Napoleon to make a campaign in two weeks that 
would have taken another a year to accomplish. 
** These Frenchmen are not men, they fly," 
said the Austrians in consternation. Phillips 
Brooks well said: '* Let us beware of losing 
our enthusiasm. Let us glory in something, 
and strive to retain our admiration for all that 
would ennoble, and our interest in all that would 
enrich and beautify our life." 

194 



ENTHUSIASM 195 

If we would desire to get and to maintain en- 
thusiasm, let us not forget this — enthusiasm 
has its foundation in faith. "We must believe 
in the cause if we would maintain enthusiastic 
devotion to it. 

In an art gallery in Paris is a beautiful statue 
conceived by a sculptor who was so poor that 
he lived and worked in a small garret. When 
his clay model was nearly done, a heavy frost 
fell upon the city. The artist knew that if the 
water in the interstices of the clay should freeze, 
the beautiful lines of his model would be dis- 
torted. So he wrapped his bed clothes around 
the clay image. In the morning he was found 
dead, but his idea was saved, and other hands 
gave it permanent form in marble. Just so 
has many a good work been accomplished 
through an enthusiastic adherence to an ideal 
To a soul throbbing with an enthusiastic pur- 
pose nothing seems able to turn it aside, and 
mighty results are sure to be accomplished. 
The inventor's persistent enthusiasm for his 
machine is founded upon faith in its ultimate 
success. Columbus persisted because he be- 
lieved in a Western Continent to be discovered. 



196 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

So also in religion; enthusiasm is founded upon 
faith. 

But enthusiasm must be fed. A lamp must 
be replenished with oil or it will go out. It is 
impossible for us to keep up enthusiasm unless 
enthusiasm has something to feed upon. A 
bubbling, showy, emotional enthusiasm cannot 
last long. You cannot laugh and you cannot 
cry all day long. But there is such a thing as 
a sustained and rational enthusiasm. The 
thing upon which honest enthusiasm lives is 
truth. It is when the mind is brought to dwell 
upon such truths as the evil of sin, the immor- 
tality of the soul, the possibility of salvation, 
etc., that there comes an enthusiastic interest 
in the things of God. Enthusiasm is kindled 
and enthusiasm is maintained as we place be- 
fore our minds the great facts and truths of 
religion, and give them their due weight. 

Enthusiasm must be watched. If not, it is 
very liable to run away with us. Unwatched, 
unguarded, it makes cranks and fanatics and 
one-sided, lop-sided people out of us. En- 
thusiasm shades off so gradually from sense to- 
wards non-sense, it passes so imperceptibly 



ENTHUSIASM 197 

from a desirable to an undesirable condition of 
character, tKat we need to be on onr guard. 

There are two special sources of safety. One 
is in contact with bealtby, hearty men and wom- 
en. If we associate with level-headed, sound, 
all-round people our enthusiasm will be regu- 
lated, and more liable to be kept in safe bounds. 
Another source of safety is through the study 
of the Bible, and the comparing of Scripture 
with Scripture. Indeed, this should really have 
been named first. But the two must ever go 
along together. The influence of the Bible is 
wholesome, and the influence and contact with 
sensible Christians is wholesome, and the two 
are mutually helpful. There are people who 
seem to be able to make the Bible mean any- 
thing. They fail in the duty of comparing 
Scripture with Scripture, and over-emphasize 
disconnected truths. We might take a photo- 
graph of a portion of a man's body; say his 
nose. Suppose that it were taken life size, and 
then pasted upon a picture of the man's face 
taken in smaller form ; though a true picture of 
that member of the body, it would be all out of 
proportion, and the whole face would seem to 



198 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

be nose! It is the same way many people ex- 
aggerate single truths of the Bible. They see 
them out of proportion. The secret of safety 
is in the comparing of Scripture with Scripture, 
and taking the Bible and its teachings as a 
whole. 

Enthusiasm is contagious. An enthusiastic 
person begets enthusiasm in others. There- 
fore, we should arouse ourselves in order to 
exercise a wholesome and helpful influence. Do 
not permit yourself to be a drain upon others, 
but be yourself a source of enthusiasm. It is 
noticeable how many people there are who de- 
pend upon their leaders for their enthusiasm. 
Public speakers and pastors and Christian 
workers often feel the weight of being depended 
upon by others to generate their enthusiasm for 
them. Many people are like a sponge; they 
take in all the time. Instead, we should be like 
a power-house, actually generating force. We 
should each become a centre of enthusiasm and 
strive to make ourselves an inspiring force to 
others. 



XXX. 

MY NEIGHBOR. 

In the parable of the Good Samaritan Christ 
introduces ns to our neighbor and makes known 
to ns the true neighbor spirit as we should dis- 
play it. The world has been a long time find- 
ing out who the neighbor is. In past time if a 
stranger came into a village they set the dogs 
on him. A ** stranger '' or a '^ foreigner '' 
aways meant an enemy; one to be treated as 
such. But in the parable of the Good Samaritan 
Christ teaches us very clearly that our neighbor 
is any man, woman or child in any part of this 
world, near or far, who is in need of our help, 
whether in a temporal or spiritual way. 

In the parable he tells us, for one thing, that 
the man with the neighbor spirit is sure to have 
opportunities to manifest it. There are people 
who claim they cannot see any suitable objects 
upon which to bestow benevolent assistance. 
They talk about being imposed upon, and can 

199 



200 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

see no deserving cases. So the priest and the 
Levite probably felt. But the reason for such 
feeling is not that there are no deserving ob- 
jects, for they are everywhere lying in our 
path, as the poor man was lying in the road to 
Jericho ; but it is because so many do not possess 
the true neighbor spirit within them. Suitable 
objects are everywhere, at home, abroad, with- 
in our family circle, in our community, in our 
country, throughout the world. Our neighbor 
is suffering in the famine in India. He has 
fallen by the roadside in the heathenism of 
China and Africa and the islands of the seas. 
He is prostrate in the slums of our great cities. 
Have you the neighbor spirit? You can find 
plenty of opportunities to display it. 

In this parable Christ tells us, also, that the 
man with the neighbor spirit will rise above 
questions of nationality and religious prejudice. 
These are among the most powerful influences 
that tend to divide men. As we have said, it is 
easy to regard a foreigner as an enemy. Citi- 
zens of other nations we may call brothers ; but 
it is very seldom that they are regarded in a 
practical way as brother men, possessing a like 



MY NEIGHBOE 201 

nature and equal rights with ourselves. Too 
often they are thought of as monsters to be 
fought and plundered. Religious prejudice is 
also no less bitter and difQcult to overcome. 
The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans ; 
and too often even Christians display something 
of the same spirit toward one another if they 
happen to go to different churches or belong to 
different denominations. Instead of being kind 
to those of another religion men in times gone 
by have even thought it their duty to inflict 
upon them pains and penalties. But it is these 
two powerful prejudices the neighbor spirit is 
bound to break through. What the good 
Samaritan saw at the road side was not a Jew 
or a foreigner, but a suffering man. He asked 
no questions about either his religion or his 
country. It was enough for him to know that 
here was a fellow man who needed his help. 
The world yet needs more fully to learn this 
lesson. 

In this parable Christ tells us, furthermore, 
that the man with the neighbor spirit will have 
respect to the material as well as the spiritual 
needs of those he would help. There are people 



202 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

not a few who will profess to weep over the 
spiritual needs of others and yet are practically- 
regardless of their temporal sufferings. If 
this poor man had talked about his soul maybe 
the priest and the Levite would have paused in 
sentimental sympathy. But Christ distinctly 
warns against saying and not doing. He tells 
us that it amounts to nothing for us to say to a 
hungry man, ** Depart and be ye filled," while 
at the same time we fail to give him any of the 
things that are needful. It has often been said 
that you cannot put religion into the soul of a 
hungry man. The saying is extreme; yet it 
points out a danger and a duty. Christ healed 
and fed and helped people as well as preached 
to them. Having respect for people's temporal 
needs will often prove a John the Baptist in the 
way of preparing their hearts for the accept- 
ance of spiritual things. In other words, the 
man with the neighbor spirit will be a practical 
man, and will use practical means, having re- 
spect to both the material and spiritual needs 
of those he would help. He will not neglect the 
spiritual in his engrossment with the temporal, 
nor the temporal as a means to the spiritual. 



MY NEIGHBOE 203 

In this parable Christ tells us again, that the 
man with the neighbor spirit does good at the 
cost of self-sacrifice. The good Samaritan dis- 
played utter unselfishness in the way he ren- 
dered his aid. For one thing, he rendered his 
help personally. He bound up the man's 
wounds with his own hands, and poured in the 
oil and the wine. He did the work alone, where 
there were no witnesses to look upon or ap- 
plaud his deed. Many people will do good if 
there are plenty of on-lookers to cheer and 
praise them. Under such circumstances even 
the priest and the Levite probably would have 
helped the man half-dead. The help of the 
Samaritan was all the more praiseworthy in 
that it was also rendered in the midst of peril. 
That was a desolate road, infested with robbers. 
How could he know but the very ruffians who 
had perpetrated the injury on the poor man 
were near at hand and might assault him too? 
Then he might also have said to himself : ^ ^ Now, 
if I am found in contact with this man, who 
can tell but what I myself may be charged with 
the crime that has been committed, and, if so, 
I have no way to clear myself. ' ' But his neigh- 



204 GEOWING TOWAED GOD 

bor spirit rose above all selfishness. In the 
face of danger and at the cost of both trouble 
and expense lie rendered the needed aid. 

It is a picture to warm any soul to see that 
Samaritan, the owner, the man of means, walk- 
ing at the side of his beast, with the weak and 
wounded man in his place, thus journeying along 
the rough highway, steadying this stranger lest 
he fall. He '^ brought him to an inn," and he 
there *' took care of him." '^ On the morrow 
when he departed, he took out two pence and 
gave them to the host." The sum was ample 
to provide for the man several days. But lest 
it might not prove sufficient he charges the inn- 
keeper: *^ Take care of him; (that is, be sure 
you give him every needed attention) and what- 
soever thou spendest more, (that is. Take the 
best of care of him, whatever it may cost) when 
I come again I will repay thee." In other 
words, the help was rendered, alone, in the face 
of danger and without regard to cost. It was 
at the cost of great self-denial, and was there- 
fore thoroughly unselfish. Besides, the help 
was rendered in an absolutely practical and 
sensible manner — something much needed to 



MY NEiaHBOR 205 

be learned by would-be philanthropists in these 
days. 

There is a spnrions philanthropy very popu- 
lar now-a-days, which spends itself in talk and 
prayers and speeches and newspaper notices 
and contributions for the use of some newly in- 
vented society for the help of the distressed. 
It deals with need at long range, sits in parlor 
meetings and conference halls, talks much, 
writes many signed articles for the press; but 
it never ' ^ comes where the man is ' ^ ; ^ ' goes to 
him''; and with its own hands ** binds up his 
wounds.'' It was the personal, practical, 
trouble-taking, unselfish help-rendering, the 
true neighbor spirit, that Christ was commend- 
ing so highly in the parable. And he did it so 
tactfully and well that the lawyer, who would 
have revolted had he been told at first that a 
Samaritan could be a neighbor to a Jew and de- 
serve his kind consideration, was voluntarily 
brought to admit it. His Jewish prejudice 
would not permit him to name the Samaritan, 
but there was no impropriety in his view, or 
escape from saying, that the man who showed 
so much mercy was really the neighbor to the 



206 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

man in distress, and not those who though pro- 
fessing to be his neighbor would do nothing for 
him. 

In the parable Christ tells us, also, very 
definitely, that the cultivation of this neighbor 
spirit is the duty of us all. This is what he 
said: ^' Go thou and do likewise." There is 
a very wide sphere for such deeds, plenty of 
deserving cases, and you have both the means 
and capacity to help them. The test of the 
lawyer's piety is the test of your piety also. 
Go and break the fetters of the slave. Go and 
preach the gospel to the poor. Go rescue and 
defend and teach and save the children. Help 
the fallen fellow man in heathendom. Make 
the city in which you live a safer one for the 
weak and easily tempted to live in. Lift up 
the fallen, cheer the discouraged, bind up the 
broken hearted, 

'' Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, 
Snatch them in pity from sin and the 
grave ; 
Weep o'er the erring one, lift up the fallen. 
Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save. ' ' 

The opportunities lie all about us, and 



MY NEIGHBOE 207 

Christ's command is plain: *^ Go thou and do 
likewise. ' ' That is, * ^ Go, you, and display this 
neighbor spirit." Oh, that everywhere the 
spirit of obedience to the teaching of this beau- 
tiful parable might take hold of men! 



LIFE AND THINGS. 

Can it be possible that '' a man's life con- 
sisteth not in the abundance of the things which 
he possesseth ''? From the way we see men 
seeking possessions we would suppose the op- 
posite. See what men will sacrifice and under- 
go and do in order to get possessions. Not the 
cold of the Klondyke; not the heat of the 
tropics; not the fevers of South African 
jungles ; not the perils of the depths of the sea ; 
not the loneliness or privations of prairies, the 
height of mountains, the dangers of war, nor 
the diseases and discomforts of city slums can 
deter men in their mad rush to possess 
'' things." And yet we are plainly told, and 
lack no conviction of the fact, that '' a man's 
life consisteth not in the abundance of the 
things which he possesseth." Is it not strange 
that so much energy on the part of so many 
people should be so greatly misdirected? 

208 



LIFE AND THINGS 209 

But let us at the same time make sure to 
notice this, that the Bible nowhere discourages 
the possession of things. It says nothing what- 
ever against it. But what it does say is this, 
that a man's life does not consist in things — 
in the abundance of the things which he may 
possess. He may possess things ; that may not 
be wrong, and may not do the man any harm; 
but it is very wrong and of very great harm 
when the things begin to possess the man, or 
when the man begins to estimate his life by the 
abundance of the things which he possesseth. 

In what then does a man's life consist? In 
the first place, it consisteth in being a Christian. 
However simple it may sound, and however 
often one may have heard it, yet the fact is that 
that is the principal thing — the being a Chris- 
tian. Whether he have things or not matters 
but little ; but whether he be a Christian or not 
matters altogether. ^ ^ Wisdom is the principal 
thing ; therefore get wisdom. ' ' And this means 
the sort of wisdom of which the wise Solomon 
wrote when he said: '' The fear of the Lord 
is the beginning of wisdom. ' ' 

In the second place, a man's life consisteth 



210 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

in leading others to be Christians. The foolish 
man was going to tear down his barns and build 
greater and there store up his goods that he 
might keep them for himself. Selfishness is 
death. Every selfish man is standing in the 
shoes of ^ ^ the rich fool. ' ' The trouble with the 
man was that he had somehow gotten the mis- 
taken idea that a man's life consists in the 
abundance of the things which he possesses. 
The fact is that a man's life consists in helping 
other people to possess. The best possession 
any one can have is life eternal, and the best 
use any man can make of his money, his time, 
his influence, his social powers, his efforts, is 
in the way of directly or indirectly leading 
others to be Christians. There is abundance 
of opportunity for every one of us to become 
thus '^ rich toward God." 

In the third place, a man's life consisteth in 
the perfecting of his Christian character. 
There is one kind of covetousness God en- 
courages in us. He even commands it. *^ Covet 
earnestly the best gifts." A man's life con- 
sisteth in coveting earnestly the best gifts, and 
in acquiring them, — gifts of patience, meek- 



LIFE AND THINGS 211 

ness, gentleness, faith, charity, power to be, and 
power to bear, and power to do. No man is 
ever better occupied than when engaged in the 
use of means for strengthening and polishing 
and perfecting his character. '' Things '* are 
trivial. Character is extremely important. A 
man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the 
^ ^ things ' ' which he possesseth, but in the num- 
ber and quality of the graces he acquires, and 
the strength and beauty of the character he de- 
velops. 

In the fourth place, a man's life consisteth in 
helping others to perfect their characters. The 
poorest men in all the world are not the men 
who own the least money, not even those who 
possess in themselves the least character, but 
those who lay stumbling-blocks or use means to 
drag down the characters of others. The rich- 
est men in all the world are not those who own 
the most money; but those who are Christians 
themselves and who do the most to lead others 
to be Christians, — who use the greatest en- 
deavor to perfect their own Christian charac- 
ters, and who do the most toward helping others 
in perfecting their characters. Poor indeed is 



212 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

every one who * * layeth up treasure for himself 
and is not rich toward God/' Rich indeed is 
every one who is rich in faith, rich in hope, rich 
in love, rich in good works, * ^ rich toward God. ' ' 
Whether rich or poor in this world's goods you 
may be a millionaire of character, and an heir 
of eternal glory. 



XXXII. 
LIFE MAERED AND MADE OVER. 

When the prophet Jeremiah was once watch- 
ing a potter he saw that the vessel he was mak- 
ing was marred in his hands, and '^ so he made it 
again another vessel, as seemed good to the pot- 
ter to make it." Both in Egypt and in Pales- 
tine we saw the same thing happen. We 
watched the potter for a good while, but by 
and by it happened as we had anticipated. 
From some defect in the clay, or because he had 
taken too little, the potter suddenly changed his 
mind, crushed his growing jar instantly into a 
shapeless mass of mud, and, beginning anew, 
fashioned it into a totally different vessel. 

The making and use of these stone jars is a 
striking feature of Eastern life. The finished 
vessels are light and thin and are literally 
dashed to pieces by the slightest stroke. Water 
jars are often broken by merely putting them 
down upon the floor or the pavement at the 

213 



214 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

fountain. The servant frequently returns from 
the well or spring empty handed, having had all 
his jars smashed to atoms by some irregular 
behavior of the donkey. The coarse pottery 
of the country is so cheap that even poor people 
throw it aside in contempt, or dash it to pieces 
on the slightest occasion, as, for example, when 
one of a hated sect has made use of it. 

But Jeremiah's reference was, of course, to 
the unfinished, unbaked vessel. As the potter 
was turning the wheel with his foot and mould- 
ing the clay on the upper disc with his hand, the 
vessel was marred in the making; *^ so he made 
it again '' into another vessel, '^ as seemed good 
to the potter to make if 

God has a plan for every life. The potter has 
a plan — a pattern after which he proposes to 
fashion his vessel. So we believe that for every 
life there is a divine pattern, something God 
means us to become, some possible ideal which 
is very beautiful and desirable. But it is sadly 
true that a life may be marred in the making. 
In living it out life may fail of coming up to 
God's beautiful ideal. For let us not try to 
make the illustration *^ walk on all four." 



LIFE MADE OVEE 215 

There is a difference between a lump of clay and 
a human life. A lump of clay is helpless in the 
hands of the potter. It has no will, no power 
of choice, no chance to make a decision. But 
we have will. We can therefore resist the pot- 
ter. We can defeat God's purpose for our life. 
We can spoil the design. It is our own fault 
when we sin and rebel and make such sad work 
of ourselves, when God desires that we shall 
be good and beautiful and useful. 

But it is a glad and happy fact that it is pos- 
sible for a marred life to be made over again. 
It may not be so good as the designer at first in- 
tended, yet nevertheless good. '' So he made it 
again. ' ' It was marred and made over. How 
much better than to have thrown the clay away ! 
How much kinder toward the clay! And it is 
ever thus God deals with human souls. He does 
not cast off the life that has failed of its first 
and best possibilities. God is always wishing 
to give us another chance. 

When Eev. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman was con- 
ducting union evangelistic services in Eochester, 
N. Y., a few years ago, he was accompanied by 
the noted singing evangelist, Mr. Peter B. Bil- 



216 GROWING TOWARD GOD 

horn. We recall how Dr. Chapman preached 
one evening to an immense audience on the 
theme of ^^ Life's Second Chance." At the 
close of the address Mr. Bilhorn sang with won- 
derful expression and effectiveness a solo en- 
titled, '' A Bird with a Broken Wing." The 
words tell of a bird with a broken wing which 
was found in a woodland meadow : 

I healed its wound, and each morning 

It sang its sweet old strain; 
But the bird with a broken pinion 

Never soared as high again. 

Then the words go on to tell of a broken life 
and its second chance: 

I found a young life broken 

By sin's seductive art; 
And, touched with a childlike pity, 

I took him to my heart. 

He lived with a noble purpose 

And struggled not in vain; 
But the life that sin had stricken 

Never soared as high again. 

But this does not mean that the broken life 
was not a useful life. Though marred it was 



LIFE MADE OVEE 217 

made over and was of blessed service in the 
world : 

Yet tlie bird with the broken pinion 
Kept another from the snare; 

And the life that sin had stricken 
Eaised another from despair. 

Has your life been marred by sin? Is it *^ a 
life which sin has broken ''? It is certainly 
true that it must show some scars, that the flight 
cannot be as high as if sin had never hurt it. 
The bloom cannot be put back on the peach. 
The lost innocence cannot be restored. You are 
not better off, but worse off, for having sinned. 
But this is not a reason for discouragement. 
The bird with a broken wing was not useless. 
It kept another from the snare. The life that 
sin had stricken raised another from despair. 
There is no doubt that marred lives can be very 
useful lives. Those who have had sorrow know 
best how to comfort others. The converted 
drunkard can plead with burning eloquence with 
other men who are approaching the snare of in- 
temperance. Spend no time in regretting the 
past. *^ So he made it again." There is al- 



218 GROWING TOWAED GOD 

ways another chance. Do the best with what 
remains of life. Submit yourself to the divine 
Potter, that the marred life may be made over. 
The vessel may not be so beautiful or useful as 
at first intended, but still may be very beautiful 
and very useful. Thank God for life's sceond 
chance ! 



SEP 7 1904 



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